


He's like, the future

by cafri_jonique



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean marks on Lance, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Background Krolivan, Beaches, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Canon Compliant, Constellations, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Family, Feels, Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), Horseback Riding, Injury, Journey, M/M, Major Character Injury, Original Planets, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post Season 8, Slow Burn, Stargazing, additional tags to be added as i go along, aka keith fucks up his back, background hunay, background veracxa, but he gets better I swear, it's really soft/slow/lethargic angst tho, klance, lance is a muscular farm boi, little bit of Shurtis, mentions of keith's dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2019-10-07 16:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 53,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17369489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafri_jonique/pseuds/cafri_jonique
Summary: Years after the first paladin dinner where the Voltron lions said their goodbyes to the paladins, Keith is in the Blade of Marmora, Shiro and Hunk are aboard the Atlas, Pidge is working at the Garrison on Earth, and Lance is on his farm in Cuba, surrounded by his family.After Krolia and the rest of Keith's unit insist that he take a break from Blade work, he has nothing to do except sit in his middle-of-the-desert shack back in Texas. That is, until Acxa comes to his door with the offer of actually doing something productive. Or, at least fun. And maybe that fun includes seeing Lance.Keith is... definitely screwed.Or: A post-season 8 fic that delves into what happens after the paladins go their separate ways, especially between Lance and Keith





	1. Red and Black

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first written fanwork in years, so what better way to start writing again then with Voltron, which has been one of my favorite things ever for the past few months?

Slowly, the universe recovered. Slowly, the paladins moved on from Voltron. No one had seen the lions since that first paladin dinner. And the paladins were okay with that. Pidge and her family worked their way to the top of the Garrison and headed the Atlas from Earth. Shiro and Hunk travelled on the Atlas, Shiro as captain and Hunk as head chef. Lance stayed on his farm in Cuba with his family. And Keith changed the Blade of Marmora into an organization that helped people in need. 

Allura was never forgotten. There were memorials of her everywhere. On almost every planet Keith had gone to. Every planet he visited, he was always asked to tell the story of Voltron by any kids that he helped out. And every single time their adventure left his lips, he made sure they knew of Allura and all that she’d done and sacrificed.

Gradually, the paladins that didn’t see each other often grew apart. Keith stayed close with Shiro. Shiro stayed close with Hunk. Pidge stayed close with both of the men on the Atlas. The only one that seem to have drifted the farthest apart was Lance. 

Keith may have thought that he and Lance had some chemistry back before he first left to be a full-time member of the Blade of Marmora, back when they were still fighting the Galra. Then the shenanigans on Earth ensued, and, well, Lance got with Allura. So Keith backed off. Lance did confide in him twice, and Keith poured his heart out to Lance both times. But he never went any further. He never attempted to pursue him. But, it started to fizzle out after Allura’s… sacrifice. It wasn’t fair, in Keith’s mind, to try and swoop in after Lance the minute she was gone. And that was assuming Lance was even into guys at all, which, seeing as how he and Allura had gotten together, was unlikely. So he moved on.

He dated a few people here and there, but they were never anything serious. And after devoting his entire time to changing the Blade, he just wasn’t able to get into any relationships. It was just him and his unit; him, Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid. And of course Shiro, Krolia, and Kolivan, whenever Keith got the chance to see or speak to them. But other than that, he didn’t really have any close relationships, platonic, familial, or romantic. He would never be able to sever his bond with any of the other paladins, that was for sure; however, he just wasn’t as close to them as he had been before.

And Lance was a long-forgotten childhood crush, even if Keith hadn’t necessarily been a child when he and Lance were a part of Voltron. Keith wasn’t even sure they were anything more than close acquaintances at this point, with how little they talked or saw each other. Well, no matter. Keith was over him.

Or so he thought.

——————

It had been a long two weeks. With the insistence of his fellow Blades and Krolia, Keith was taking some time off to take a small vacation. The problem was, Keith didn’t know where to go. He didn’t have any blood related family on Earth that he knew of, and Krolia was busy with the Galactic Coalition. And he felt awkward intruding on any of the other former paladins on such short notice. So he just resided in his old house in the desert.

Shiro had visited him a few times, since the Atlas was on Earth for the first week and a half Keith was vacationing. The last time he was able to come over before the Atlas was launching, he had brought Pidge and Hunk along. They had a good evening, no doubt. The two caught up with Keith, and explained their plans for the next six months on the Atlas, with the help of Shiro. Shiro revealed that he was engaged to another member of the Atlas, someone named Curtis, and was planning on getting married in a year or so. Cue the congratulations from everyone. And then they all watched a movie.

The next day, Keith finally made the effort to get out of the house to see the Atlas off. He was only able to chat with Shiro and Hunk for a few minutes, but he stood next to Pidge as the ship disappeared from view. They grabbed lunch together, and Keith did some grocery shopping to stock up his fridge for the week. 

But eventually, Pidge had to get back to work. While Keith was on vacation, she was not. And on top of her normal work, she had to help make sure the comms to the Garrison were in working order. They said their “goodbyes” to each other, and Keith took his bike back to his lonely shack.

He missed the other paladins. Sure, he kept in constant contact with Shiro, but the others, well, he barely talked to. He longed to taste one of Hunk’s dishes again, or help Pidge with any of her side projects. He’d even settle to have a little friendly competition with Lance over something, anything.

Lance. Now that was someone he definitely probably wouldn’t be seeing on his break. Keith, at the moment, resided in Texas, whereas Lance and his family were all the way in Cuba, a place he hadn’t even been to. For all of the intergalactic traveling Keith had to do, he hadn’t been anywhere on Earth outside of North America.He didn’t really see Lance anyways except for the annual paladin dinner on Altea, and he didn’t really talk all that much with Lance anymore since he himself was busy with the Blades most of the time. So, it would be kind of weird to text him out of the blue without any context, right? 

Of course, Keith was finished with his old fancy of the former red-paladin. That had been over for years at this point. Keith had focused on other things. Other, more important things. Like uniting the remnants of the old Galra empire. And later, transforming the Blades into a humanitarian organization. Doing good in the universe he and the rest of the paladin had fought for so hard.

Right now, it was just his social awkwardness that prevented him from sending a message to Lance. Or Hunk and Pidge, for that matter. They were all on a group chat, but it wasn’t used as often as it had before those first two years after the paladins had gone their separate ways. The latest things that were posted was a photo Pidge had sent of herself, Keith, Hunk and Shiro when they had been over the other day, and a short conversation that followed. Lance had jokingly noted that they were missing someone.

And so the days dragged on, Keith silently wishing his break would go by faster. He only agreed to take a vacation because he thought Krolia and Kolivan would also have some time off, as Krolia had promised, but then they were caught up in something last minute. And Keith was already back on Earth, so it would’ve been a pain to pay for and deal with the transportion back to the headquarters in Daibazaal. It was bad enough going through the airports on Earth, but it was ten times more stressful to go through intergalactic travel without the excuse of doing Blade work. Another reason why Keith didn’t take that many vacations. 

——————

A couple of days went by after the Atlas launched. The one thing Keith was enjoying was the ability to sleep in. Or so he thought.

A heavy knocking on his door effectively woke him up, confusing him. It was still dark out and he was pretty sure that he went to bed pretty the night before. Keith checked his watch. 4:19.

Who the hell was knocking on his door in the middle of the desert before the sun was even up?

With a groan, Keith grabbed a jacket and a flashlight, and put some socks on. Nights in the desert were cold.

There was another knock, to which Keith called out, “I’m coming, just wait a second!”

He opened the door, eyes droopy and hair messy, to find a familiar face standing in front of him.

“Acxa?” he said, cocking his head in confusion.

Because there Acxa was, standing in front of his door,

She gave a little wave. “Yes, hello, Keith.”

“What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

“Well, I just arrived on Earth a few hours ago.”

Keith shook his head. “Wait, just arrived? Shouldn’t you be in- uhg, hold on,” he said, “I need coffee before I can have this conversation.” 

He opened the door for Acxa, and she walked in. Keith rubbed his eyes.

“Sorry it’s messy, I wasn’t expecting any visitors tonight… or this morning.”

Acxa sat down on his couch and Keith moved over to the counter next to the fridge where the coffee pot was. “Do you want me to pour you a cup too?” he asked.

She shook her head and explained, “No, I don’t really care for coffee. I’m much more partial to tea.”

“Uh, I have some tea?”

“What kind?”

“Earl gray, chamomile, uhh… apple cinnamon?”

“Earl gray works for me.”

Once the coffee and tea was made and Keith had downed enough to keep him awake, he pulled up a chair and positioned himself across from Acxa, on the other side of his coffee table.

“So…”

“So?”

“You just arrived on Earth?” Keith asked, “I thought you were in Italy with Veronica.”

Acxa gave a little shrug. “Yes, I was supposed to be, but something came up at the Garrison in the middle of traveling around Daibazaal that Ronnie had to attend to.”

“Wait, did she board the Atlas?” Keith questioned, not remembering seeing Veronica during the launch.

“No, no, our trip to Italy was just postponed, not cancelled altogether,” Acxa said, shaking her head, “Because it was postponed, I stayed on Daibazaal a little longer. Ronnie’s at the Garrison in California at the moment, but she should be returning to the states tomorrow.”

“What’s she doing in California?”

“I’m not entirely sure, to be honest, but I’m sure we’ll talk about it later.”

“I see. So what brings you here?”

Acxa took a sip of her tea. “Zethrid and Ezor told me that you were finally taking a vacation. I thought that since my transport to Earth would be arriving a day before Ronnie arrived back in Texas, I’d come visit you.”

Keith yawned. “You could have come at a lighter hour,” he grumbled quietly, before raising his voice again and saying, “Well, what do you want to do? I don’t really have any plans, since Shiro and Hunk left on the Atlas and Pidge is busy at work.”

“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to join Ronnie and I for her birthday in a few days.”

“Oh- what, really? Wouldn’t I just be a third wheel?”

“We’re actually flying to Cuba to visit her family, since it’s her 30th birthday, and apparently that’s a milestone for people on Earth.”

Keith blanched at those words. “Cuba?! I thought you were still going to Italy.”

Acxa shrugged. “We were supposed to be in Italy last week, and we were planning to fly from there to Cuba two days before. Since Italy has been moved to next week, we’re just going to Cuba first instead.”“Makes sense, but… why do you want me there?” Keith asked, very confused.

“Well it’s not so much that we want you to come, but more that we get a discount on the airline we’re taking with three people, and since you were on vacation as well, I thought I’d ask.”

Keith slumped down. “Gee, thanks, I feel very appreciated. So is that the only reason you came out here to see me? To see if I can get you a discount?”

Acxa shifted in her seat, looking a little guilty. “I also wanted to see you. Our honeymoon has been going on for about a month and I haven’t seen anyone in our unit since. You know that I regard you, Ezor, and Zethrid as close friends, right?”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“So do you want to join us?”

“Mm… why the hell not?”

“Excellent! We’ll leave for the Garrison tomorrow at around 10:00 to meet up with Ronnie.”

She then went on to describe all of the fun she and Veronica had on Daibazaal before she had to leave for the Garrison. Hours passed and out of the corner of Keith’s eye, he saw the world outside lighten as the sun started to rise. Acxa continued talking, and Keith gave tired, nonchalant answers. But internally, Keith was anything but nonchalant. 

Lance.

He was going to see Lance again.

After almost a year. 

Without any of the other former paladins.

And outside of any formal gathering.

Keith was so screwed.

——————

Two days and three flights later, Keith was stepping into the back of a car with Veronica at the steering wheel and Acxa in the passenger’s seat.

While Veronica and Acxa were chatting away, Keith was looking out of the window of the car, headphones on. What was he going to say to Lance? In his rush to get packed, and then rush to pick up Veronica and then get to the airport, Keith didn’t contact Lance at all to let him know that he was tagging along. And after Veronica, Keith didn’t really know anyone else in Lance’s family. So, yeah, it would probably be awkward. He wondered if Acxa and Veronica had told the family that he was tagging along. He hoped they did.

The three drove all day. When Veronica got tired, Acxa took the wheels. When Acxa got tired, Keith took the wheels, with Veronica guiding him on where to turn and what exit to take. They did stop for lunch at a pizza place, and then for gas and some snacks, but it wasn’t enough to quench Keith’s restlessness and discomfort from sitting in the car for so long. He did eventually fall asleep, sometime in the late afternoon.

Hours later, Keith was shaken awake by Acxa. 

“Keith, wake up,” she said, gently rocking his shoulder.

Keith opened his eyes and was immediately greeted by darkness. He slowly exited the car and stood up, stretching and yawning. Acxa began taking their luggage out of the back of the car so Keith went to help. He was stunned at the sight. There were what seemed like acres of land covered in flowers, fruits, and vegetables, all organized and patched in neat rows. Keith had never really been on a farm; the closest he ever got was a petting zoo.

“It’s about a five minute walk to the actual house part, if you don’t mind,” Veronica called over to Keith, who shrugged at her words. “I’ve hiked worse, Veronica,” he called back, hefting his backpack out of the trunk, “I think I can hand a flat, dirt path.” She laughed in response to that.

The three started to walk down the path that lead to the house. “Man, I haven’t been home since the wedding,” Veronica stated. Acxa nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I did miss the farm. Hey, did your family say whether or not Nadia passed her math class?”

“Pshh, of course she did! Have a little faith, Acxa.”

“Is Marco going to be there? He was pretty busy with work last time we saw him.”

“Nah, he’s busy somewhere in South Africa. Taking pictures of the festival that’s going on for his portfolio.”

“Oh, really?”

Keith listened to them drone on as the house got closer and closer. Most of these names weren’t familiar at all, but he assumed that they were just people in Lance’s family. He once again thinks of how weird it’s gonna be for him to just show up. 

“Hey, I forgot to ask, but did you let your family know that I was coming?” Keith interrupted. Veronica looked up at the sky questioningly.

“I’m pretty sure I did… but even if I didn’t, it’s not like they’ll turn you away. I mean, this is my family we’re talking about,” she said, shrugging. 

“Besides, you’ll at least have Lance to chat with while Acxa and I are busy with my parents.”

“Right…”

Keith’s stomach was fluttering. This was a bad idea, why was he here? Hundreds of miles from his comfortable, familiar shack back in the USA. It was awkward enough to have to see Lance after barely communicating with him, but then his entire family? 

Well, at least Acxa was there. If he needed to abort, he could just start talking with her and Veronica. 

Finally, after what seemed like much longer than five minutes, they reached the house. Veronica knocked on the door to let them know she was there before unlocking it and beckoning Acxa and Keith inside. 

As Keith stepped through the door, a somewhat-old woman hugged Acxa tight while two teenagers almost tackled Veronica. To Keith’s utter surprise and confusion, they look kind of familiar.

Veronica turns to Keith. “Mama, this is Keith. Keith, this is my mother and my niece and nephew, Nadia and Sylvio.”

Keith nodded at the woman standing next to Acxa, who smiled when she saw him. “Ah, Keith, it’s nice to see you again! It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Keith cocked his head in confusion. “I apologize, but have we met before? I know you’re Lance’s mom, but I don’t think we ever actually met?” he said.

“Oh, well I suppose we didn’t officially meet, but I never forget a face. Our family met all of the other paladins of Voltron before the Atlas launched for the first time, at the end of the war,” she explained, her smile only widening.

Oh, right. That’s why they look familiar. While he never officially met Lance’s family, he did remember seeing them back when they were defending Earth from Sendak. And before they left on the Atlas. He’s surprised she even recognizes him, it’s been so long. Then again, being a former paladin of Voltron, not to mention the former leader of Voltron, people might recognize you anyways.

Keith shook her hand and said, “Well, I’m sorry for not recognizing you. It’s nice to see you again, Mrs. McClain.”

“Whoa, is there a party in here that I wasn’t invited to?” 

Keith stiffened. He recognized that voice. He turned his head in the direction of where it came from. 

“Hey, Lance! You miss me? You don’t have to answer that, I already know the answer,” Veronica greeted him, already pulling him in for a hug. 

“Hi, Acxa.”

“Hello Lance.”

Lance finally turned over to where Keith was standing, gripping the straps on his backpacks tightly. “Oh hey, Mullet,” he called out.

Aaaand all of Keith’s nervousness shot out the window in favor of annoyance at the old nickname he was given years ago by his former rival and teammate. “I don’t have a mullet,” Keith grumbled, eyes narrowing at Lance. 

Lance shrugged, a teasing expression on his face. “Whatever you say, Keith. C’mere.”

Keith raised an eyebrow in confusion before Lance wrapped him up in a big, sturdy hug. Wow. Lance was strong. And he had muscles now. Well, Keith did remember seeing those same muscles at the last paladin dinner, but now, he was seeing them up close.  


Snap out of it, Keith, he silently scolded himself.

Lance let go of him and smiled a much milder smile. 

“So Keith…” he started, raising one eyebrow, “You and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

Keith nodded and awkwardly said, “Yup.”

“But first things first,” he said, motioning to his mother.

“Yes, first things first, we’re having dinner,” she said, looking at Keith, Veronica, and Acxa, “Lance, will you show Keith to the guest room?”

Lance beckoned Keith to follow him to the hallway and Keith straightened his posture.

This was certainly going to be an interesting trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters are probably all gonna be named after colors, but whenever there's more than one color listed, it doesn't have anything to do with relationships or anything, it's just a reference to lions
> 
> Twitter: @cafri_jonique


	2. Red and Black and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith spends time on the farm, and gets a bit caught up with Lance.

Surprisingly, Lance didn’t really talk that much as he led Keith to wherever the guest room was. He just slowly walked through the halls, occasionally looking back to make sure Keith was still following him. 

Which he was.

After stopping in front of a door, Lance turned back and looked at Keith. “This is the guest room, and the bathroom’s two doors down on the left. It’ll be the only open door, usually. Dinner will be ready in like 10 minutes.”

And then he left. 

Keith watched him go, confused at Lance’s lack of conversation. He was usually quite vibrant and chatty at the paladin dinner, and he himself even said that he and Keith needed to catch up. So what was going on?

Keith turned back to the door and opened it. The room inside was small, but a little cozy. The bed was also made, with a blue quilted blanket on top. He dropped his bag on the bed and sat down, just staring around at the room. There was a small window next to the bed, so Keith got up and walked over to it.

He looked out and saw that he got a view from the other side of the farm, which was just as breathtaking as the view from the front of the house. There was a small barn in the distance, and he could vaguely make out the shapes of what looked like cows. He wondered if Kaltenecker was one of them.

Maybe he should have brought Kosmo with him on this trip. He would be less lonely, and Kosmo would’ve probably loved these fields, since there was lots of space to run and lots of things to eat. 

He had left Kosmo with Pidge, who insisted she could handle taking care of him. Unlike intergalactic travel, it was hard to transport pets around on Earth, especially internationally. Besides, he wasn’t paying for the trip and Veronica didn’t want to pay extra to bring a pet. So maybe it was for the better.

Keith walked away from the window and went to the door. He should probably wash his hands and get ready for dinner, so he did. After leaving the bathroom, he walked back to the room at the entrance, which was also the living room and dining room. 

The previously empty table was now filled with an assortment of mouth-watering food and Keith’s stomach growled. More people were out than there were when he first got to the house. Acxa and Veronica were sitting on the couch, talking with Nadia and Sylvio, and another man and woman who looked just like them, but older. Lance and an older man was helping his mom set the table and put down food. 

It was overwhelming, to say the least. Keith felt awkward standing in the hallway, since the only people he really knew were Lance, Acxa, and Veronica, but they were busy. So he just… leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, watching everyone. 

Finally, Veronica noticed him standing off to the side and motioned for him to come over and chat. “Hey guys, I’m sure you remember Keith, even if he doesn’t remember you guys all to well,” she said as he walked over and leaned against the side of the couch. The man smiled and held his hand out. “I’m Luis, Lance and Veronica’s brother. This is my wife, Lisa,” he said, and the woman beside him smiled. Keith took his hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you,” he said.

“Is this your first time in Cuba?” Lisa asked. Keith nodded and shrugged. 

“I’ve never really traveled outside of the states when it comes to Earth,” he responded, scratching his head.

“Oh, really? You’d think that with all the intergalactic travelling you’ve had to do, you’d at least have gone to Canada or Mexico!”

“Wait, really? Has your unit never had a mission on Earth?”

“Have you at least travelled a lot around the US?”

“Has any other units in the Blade had a mission on Earth?”

Keith responded to all of these questions, but he was getting really uncomfortable. People usually didn’t ask him questions about work. Or, really, about anything other than Voltron. It was a weird change for Keith, seeing as how the people he usually had these types of conversations with was his mom, Kolivan, Shiro, and the other paladins. Not random family members.

After what seemed like forever, Lance’s mom finally clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention and let them know that dinner was ready. Almost everyone sat down immediately except for Keith, so he moved to go next to Acxa. 

“But I wanna sit next to Tia Acxa!” Nadia pouted, coming up behind Keith. 

“Nadia, don’t be rude to our guest!” came the gentle, but firm reply from Lisa. 

Keith put his hands up. “No, no, it’s fine, I can sit somewhere else.” He looked around at the table. The only other available space was the spot between Lance and the older man, presumedly Lance’s dad. Keith wasn’t really in the mood to be wedges between Lance and Lance’s dad for God knows how long, but he gave a nervous smile and walked over to sit down. The chair was different from most of the other ones. Same thing with the ones Acxa and Veronica were sitting at.

Huh. Keith guessed that they don’t usually have guests over. Although, he was pretty sure that there were more people in Lance’s family than the ones that were seated at the table. Were others coming? He doubted it, assuming that if more people were expected for dinner, there would be more chairs and plates.

“-Keith?” Lance’s voice sounded, snapping Keith out of his thoughts. He turned his head over to Lance, who was looking at him. 

“Huh?”

“I asked if you wanted water.”

“Uh, er- yeah.”

Lance handed him a pitcher with water and Keith quietly poured himself a cup of water. He eyed the food on the table as he set the pitcher down. As much as Keith wanted to start piling his plate high with the food, no one had taken any food yet and he didn’t want to be the only one. Everyone was talking with someone, and Keith felt out of place. And hungry. Really hungry.

But Lance wasn’t talking either, he noticed. If Keith didn’t know any better, he’d say that Lance looked like he felt just as awkward and out of place as Keith did. He wanted to say something, start up a conversation where they could be awkward together, but before he could, someone across the table said his name.

“Acxa tells us so much about you! How is work in the Blade for you, Keith?” Lisa, who was across the table, asked, sounding friendly and cheery. 

“Oh, work is going well. The last place that we worked at before I took a vacation was actually back on Daibazaal, so the rest of my unit hasn’t had to do that much intergalactic traveling for the past few months.”

“That’s so cool!” Sylvio piped up, “When I’m outta school, I wanna do something like you do!”

Keith couldn’t help but smile. “That’s a nice goal. Uhh, how old are you again?”

“13,” he said, grinning proudly.

Nadia nudged him. “You’re too much of a nerd to do cool stuff like what Keith does.”

They started arguing back and forth, and Keith heard a snort from beside him. Lance, who had been quiet most of this time, started silently laughing. “Looks like you have some fans, Keith,” he said, mirth dancing in his eyes. Keith gave a small smile back and breathed a metaphorical sigh of relief. This wasn’t as bad as he was expecting.

The rest of dinner went by pretty well and was as uneventful as a family dinner could get. Occasionally, Keith would get asked a question, whether it be about Blade work, or travelling, or how he was liking Cuba. At first it was weird and uncomfortable to receive these types of questions, but eventually, Keith got used to it. In fact, he started thinking that nice change of pace from only getting questions about his time as a paladin of Voltron. Sometimes there was even a nervous quip about whether he liked the food, to which he always replied with an enthusiastic yes and shoved more food onto his plate. He didn’t understand how anyone could think that this food was anything less than stellar. Keith recognized a few of the dishes and mixture of flavors since when Acxa was on dinner duty when they were on a mission, she would use recipes that she learned from Veronica and her in-laws. 

Eventually, Keith got full, which so happened to be the time that everyone else was finishing up as well. As the dirty plates and dishes were gathered off the table, Keith realized that he hadn’t talked to Lance at all throughout the meal. Come to think of it, Lance hadn’t really spoken at all except for asking people to pass a certain dish. He looked at Lance, who was clearing dishes with a neutral expression on his face. 

Lance didn’t look upset or anything… so why was he so quiet?

“This new ice cream place opened up in town, do you wanna check it out?” Luis asked Veronica. “It’s really nice,” Lisa added. Veronica raised one eyebrow up.

“Why are you guys trying to convince me to get ice cream? You should all know that is not something you have to persuade me to do!” she exclaimed, standing up abruptly, “Besides, we can catch up on all of the juicy honeymoon stories Acxa and I have.” At that, Acxa rolled her eyes, but smiled. 

“Can we come too?” Sylvio piped up, with Nadia nodding beside him. Lisa gave them a sympathetic smile before shaking her head and answering, “Sorry, you two, but you have school tomorrow and I don’t know how late we’ll be out. Especially since we need to drive all the way to town.” The kids looked down and started pouting, before Lisa continued with, “We can take you guys over the weekend, when you don’t need to get up early the next day.” Sylvio perked up immediately, while Nadia rolled her eyes. But they got up without another complaint and walked to their rooms to finish homework.

As Lance and his parents took the final plates and cups off of the table, Mrs. McClain gave Veronica a pat on the back. “Have fun, and bring back ice cream for your old folks!” she said, smiling brightly. Veronica gave her a confused look.

“You and Papá aren’t coming with us?” she asked, sounding disappointed.

“Well, someone needs to stay in the house and watch Sylvio and Nadia. And two kids calls for two adults.”

“Besides, we don’t want to infringe on you catching up with Luis and Lance.”

Veronica gave a small frown, but before she could say anything, Lance walked into the living room from the kitchen.

“I can stay and watch the kids. You two can go.”

“Wh- Lance, are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing I haven’t done before.”

“Yes, but- well okay, but someone else should to stay here too, it shouldn’t just be you. You might as well go instead.”

Keith, who had been quiet during this whole conversation, finally piped up. “I could stay here too.”

Mr. and Mrs. McClain looked incredulous, as if they couldn’t believe anyone that wasn’t a grandparent would prefer to watch over a couple of moody teenagers over going out for ice cream. “Keith, we wouldn’t want to bother you-” Mrs. McClain started, but Keith cut her off.

“It really is fine. I’m already caught up with Acxa and Veronica’s adventures over the past month.”

Veronica giggled in the background.

“Besides, this should be family time, and I’m kind of just a freeloader here,” he continued. 

Lance gave Keith a small smile and put his hand on his mom’s shoulder. “Mamá, it really is fine.”

It took a little convincing, since his parents were insistent on not wanting to burdening them, but they eventually caved and grabbed their jackets to go out. As did the rest of the McClains in the house, minus Lance, Sylvio, and Nadia. They said their goodbyes, and Keith watched as Lance went out to send them off, even though they were just getting ice cream.

And then Lance walked back into the house, and without the noise of the extra eight people, Keith heard the door shut behind him.

And so, it was just Keith and Lance, standing awkwardly in the living room.

Keith just kind of looked around the living room, while Lance still stood in front of the door, neither one of them speaking.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Lance spoke up.

“So, you wanna watch a movie or something?”

——————

They ended up inviting the kids to come watch with them, and picked some movie in Spanish that Keith wasn’t familiar with. He felt a little embarrassed, the English subtitles on because he and only he didn’t understand Spanish, but no one else commented.

The kids ended up falling asleep halfway through the movie, but instead of waking them up, Lance just continued the movie until the end. When the credits were rolling and even Keith himself was yawning, Lance picked Nadia up from the couch. Keith watched as he went into her room and presumably dropped her off in bed, coming back to do the same thing with Sylvio. 

When Lance came back, he didn’t speak a word to Keith and instead, just gave him a little wave of acknowledgment and turned off the TV. Keith opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it, realizing he really didn’t know what to say. 

Without a word, Lance opened the front door and walked outside. Keith, still sitting on the couch, debated just letting Lance be and going to bed, but he shook his head. 

Come on, Keith, he thought to himself, are you really gonna not talk to him at all after not seeing him for almost a year?

With that thought, he picked himself up from the couch and walked to the door, preparing himself to actually converse with Lance.

He opened the door, and was immediately greeted with a pretty sight. 

Lance, leaning on the railing on his porch, the full moon illuminating him, and his Altean marks glowing bright. 

Lance didn’t turn around. Instead, he just raised his hand in acknowledgment and beckoned Keith forward. Keith stepped out, and twitched his nose up when he smelled the familiar scent of a cigarette.

“Since when do you smoke?” Keith said, moving to stand next to Lance. 

Lance shrugged, blowing out a puff. “It’s been a while since I started.”

“You didn’t smell like smoke earlier.”

“That’s because I didn’t smoke today. Well, except for now.”

“One day without smoking doesn’t make the smoke smell go away, Lance.”

Lance shrugged again. “I do have a skincare routine that I follow adamantly, and it involves a lot of scented stuff. Probably just covered up the smell.”

“You know smoking will undo everything that you’re skincare routine is doing, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

Keith went silent at that for a bit. A few minutes went by quietly, the only sound being the wind ruffling the plants on the farm and Lance occasionally blowing out smoke.

“The house doesn’t smell like smoke.”

“I don’t smoke in the house, are you kidding? Mamá would kill me, especially since the kiddos would smell it too.”

“When did you start?” Keith continued pressing.

Lance blew out another puff of smoke. “Probably like, I dunno, a few years ago?”

Keith cocked his head in confusion. “I’ve never smelled any smoke on you whenever we see each other.”

Lance gave a little chuckle, tapped the edge of his cigarette on the rail, and replied, “Well, we only really see each other at formal events or the annual paladin dinner, and most people don’t like the smell of smoke, so I usually stop for a few days or weeks.”

“Most people? Does that not mean you?”

Lance rolled his eyes, but gave a small smile. “What’s with all the questions, Kogane? You were awfully quiet at dinner tonight.”

Keith rolled his eyes too and crossed his arms. “You’re one to talk, you barely said a word!”

“Guess I just don’t have that much to say lately.”

Keith looked at Lance. Like, really looked at him. His face had a tired appearance, and while Lance’s skin was still flawless, Keith noticed some bags under his eyes. right above the Altean marks. His hair was curlier than Keith remembered it being, and his eyebrows were bushier than Keith was used to seeing.

“Hey, Lance…”

“Hm?”

“Are you okay?”

Lance took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked back at Keith. “What do you mean?” Keith gave a small frown.

“I don’t know, I just thought that you seem kind of down and upset. Did something happen recently?”

Lance went quiet for a moment, not even taking a puff of his cigarette. Once again, the two were plunged into silence, minus the sound of the wind on the crops. Keith mentally counted to five, six, seven, before-

“Depends on how recent you mean.” And with that, the cigarette was back in his mouth.

“What?”

“I said, it depends on how recent you mean.”

“What does that-” Keith started, before stopping in his tracks. “Is this about, Allur- ah, um, you know who?”

Lance huffed. “You can say Allura, Keith, I’m not fragile.”

Keith scratched his head. “Right, sorry. But yeah, is it about Allura?”

Lance sighed and finally took his cigarette out for good, or at least, for the night. He dropped it on the ground and lightly stomped on it to put out the embers. He then bent down and picked up the remains.

“I guess you could say that,” he said, walking back over to Keith, “It’s not just her, though. I’ve just been going through kind of a… slump, I guess you would call it. Although you could say that it started back when she, uh… when she died.”

Lance seemed pained to say those last few words, so Keith gave Lance a pat on the back. “Do you want to talk about it?,” he asked, to which Lance shrugged.

“Nah, I don’t wanna unload six years of emotional baggage on you. That’s what my therapist is for, ya know?”

“You see a therapist?”

“Yeah, it sometimes helps. Although, technically, the therapist sees me since they usually just do a house visit.”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna talk? I’m here if you want…”

Lance gave a deep sigh and shifted over to plop down on the stairs. “It’s cool. I’m used to only talking with my therapist.”

Keith raised his eyebrow. “Do you not talk to your family about it?”

“I mean, I do, but everyone has family to talk to.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“Well, I guess I haven’t really had a single non-family non-therapist person to talk to in a while. I don’t really have that many friends you know, what with staying on the farm most the time,” Lance said, motioning out over the dark fields.

“You have us, you know. Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Coran… and me,” Keith responded, the worried expression on his face deepening.

Lance looked up at Keith, a surprisingly defeated expression on his face. “Do I really though? You’ve seen how much I’ve grown apart from the group. Hunk and Shiro travel on the Atlas together, and Pidge is in contact with them like every second they’re gone. You and Shiro are as inseparable as you can get with usually being galaxies apart. And me? I’m just the old, washed-out paladin of Voltron that lives on a farm.”

Keith opened his mouth to respond, but Lance cut him off before he could even get a word out. “Don’t feel sorry for me, okay? I love the farm, and it’s not like I spend all my time cooped up here. I do occasionally visit schools in Altea, to talk about my time in Voltron and all that jazz. And besides, I know all the other paladins have their own groups and such. Been that way since we first fought Zarkon.”

“What’s that last part supposed to mean?”

Lance gave Keith a wry smile. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice, man. Yeah, it’s been years since the war ended, but if my dumbass can remember almost everything that happened when we were a part of Voltron, so can you. Unless you really were that oblivious.”

Keith crossed his arms again and lowered his eyebrows, saying, “I’m not oblivious, Lance. And you’re not a dumbass.”

Lance gave a deep sigh. “First, it was just me and Hunk. Then, it was me, Hunk, and Pidge. We formed Voltron for the first time and suddenly, it was you, me, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro. Then Shiro disappeared and suddenly… it wasn’t anymore.”

Keith cocked his head in confusion, but Lance continued. 

“Shiro disappeared, and everyone split off into their own little groups. Hunk and Pidge. Allura and Coran. You and me. It was rough and patchy, but we managed to push through. And as time passed, I even thought… you know...”

Keith strained to hear him finish what he was going to say, but Lance just trailed off, before moving onto something else.

“And then Shiro came back. Thank God he did, but it messed up the dynamic that everyone had pushed themselves into. All of a sudden, it was now you and Shiro. Everyone else was still in a part of the dynamics formed while he was gone except you. And then I was kind of the outcast, so to speak. I came to talk to you about it, and well.”

Lance shook his head. 

“You left, and then I kind of paired with Allura, since we both had the connection of flying the blue lion. At least, until Lotor showed up and then I was an outcast again. After a while, I just kind of gave up. All I was doing was griping about Lotor and Allura, and bothering Pidge and Hunk. Shiro was off dealing with God knows what, so he was preoccupied. And Coran was still kind of sticking with Allura. Even when you came back and started flying the black lion again, it was the same.”

“You had Allura, though.”

“Did I really, though? I’ve had years to think about it, and while I still love her with everything I have, I don’t think she loved me back. At least, not in that way.”

Now it was Keith’s turn to shake his head. “Come on, Lance, don’t say that.”

“I didn’t seem to make her happy. Did she seem happy when she was with me? Because she didn’t to me.”

“She was dealing with everything that was going on, with Haggar and the Alteans.”

Lance sighed. “And I couldn’t help her through that.”

The two men stay silent for a while. Keith didn’t really know what to say, and Lance seemed done talking. 

Eventually, Lance stood up and brushed his pants off. “I’m gonna head to bed, if that’s alright with you. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to wake me up.” Keith slowly nodded in response. “Also, if you get hungry, help yourself to the fridge.”

He walked over to the door and opened it, pausing and looking back before he went inside. “Sorry to dump all of that on you, I know it’s your vacation and you’re trying to relax.”

 

Keith quickly shook his head back and forth. “No no no, it’s fine. You should talk about this stuff and to be honest, I didn’t even really want to take a vacation.”

Lance gave a snort. “You’re crazy, Kogane. If I was doing what you were, I’d want a vacation like, every week.”

“Some units do take vacations every week,” Keith couldn’t help but grumble, to which Lance started laughing. And God, Keith missed his laugh. He had barely even cracked a smile the entire night, and it sounded so good to hear Lance with a tone that didn’t sound tired and miserable.

“Well, good thing you didn’t want a vacation, because for the few days you’ll be here, you’re gonna be doing a lot of heavy lifting and early-risings,” Lance said playfully, nudging Keith’s arm. Keith raised an eyebrow.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re on a farm, Keith, and being on a farm calls for chores to be done on a farm. You know how to milk a cow?”

“What?”

“I said, you know how to milk a cow?”

——————

Keith, in fact, did know how to milk a cow. Or at least, as close as he could get to knowing without having done it before. 

Acxa had woken him up bright and early, which turned out to be later than literally everyone else in the family except for Nadia and Sylvio, who didn’t need to get up for another hour or so.

Mrs. McClain had greeted him with a hearty breakfast, which he eagerly scarfed down. Lance, Mr. McClain, and Luis had already started working. Lance was feeding the livestock while his father and brother worked to clear out weeds on the field.

When Veronica insisted that Keith go out and help, despite how early it was and how Keith was used to getting up at least an hour later, he complained, “Why do the women get to stay in the house and relax?”

To which Veronica snickered in a mocking tone, “Because Keith, our job is to cook, clean, and look pretty.”

“Veronica and I are technically guests, so we don’t have to do anything, and Ramira and Lisa are getting the kids’ stuff ready,” Acxa pitched in.

“Wha- I’m technically a guest too! And who the hell is Ramira?” Keith spluttered.

Veronica rolled her eyes. “Geez, Keith, I guess you aren’t close enough to be allowed to call her by her first name, but damn, I thought you’d at least know what my mother’s actually called other than ‘Mrs. McClain.’”

Keith just slumped over and sulked outside to join Lance at the barn. Before he could even step out, though, Veronica tapped his shoulder from behind. “You’re forgetting something.” 

He turned around as Veronica shoved two buckets in his hand. “You have got to be kidding me.”

But he left the house without another complaint.

Well, he did complain more later, after he was all done helping Lance milk the cows. When Lance had wiped the sweat off of his forehead and said, “And now, time to take the horses out.”

“No.”

“What? Why not?”

“I’m not riding a horse this early in the morning, Lance.”

“Wha- who said anything about riding them? We just need to let them out of their pens so they can walk around.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t tell me the great leader of the Blade of Marmora, former red and black paladin, leader of Voltron, Keith Kogane doesn’t know how to ride a horse?”

Keith gritted his teeth. “Of course I know how to ride a horse, I’m not an idiot.”

Lance teasingly raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Okay, so maybe you know how to ride a horse, but you seem reluctant to. Scared?”

Crossing his arms, Keith spit on the ground. “You do know where I was raised, right?”

“What, middle-of-nowhere desert in Texas?”

“You’re gonna eat those words, Lance”

“And you’re gonna eat the dirt when you fall off a horse, Mullet.”

And so, their competitive spirits finally got, well, competitive.

As they finished up in the barn, Lance led Keith to the stables. After letting all the horses out onto the outside pen, Lance went to pick out the two they’d be riding. Keith may not have ridden a horse since he was like, 9, but he was not about to be bested by Lance. Besides, he had gone on hundreds of dangerous missions in both Voltron and the pre-humanitarian Blade. Riding a horse was nothing compared to that.

Okay, so maybe it was. The horse he picked was very stubborn and she wouldn’t budge. Lance, who was on a different and apparently more moveable horse, wore a shit-eating grin the entire time while literally riding circles around Keith.

“What’s wrong?” Lance smirked as Keith once again tried and failed to get his horse to move. Keith glared at him, and demanded, “We’re switching horses, right now.”

And so they did. And still, Keith couldn’t get the horse to move. “What the hell?!” Keith shouted angrily after ten minutes went by on his new horse, while yet again, Lance just pranced around the pen.

“Hey, I can understand if you can’t get Che to walk, since she’s pretty sassy towards us human folk. But oh man, if you can’t even make Riceball move… dude, he’s literally the most easy going and cooperative horse we have.”

“What the fuck kind of name is ‘Riceball’ for a horse? In Cuba?”

“Oi, don’t diss the name. Nadia’s the one that came up with it, and you don’t argue with the kiddos when it comes to naming. Besides, we got him like three years ago, and Nadia was like 10.”

“But why Riceball?”

Lance just shrugged. “Don’t change the subject.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “And what exactly was the subject?”

Lance raised an eyebrow humorously. “The subject, dear Keith, was that you suck at riding horses.”

Keith let go of the reins and threw his hands up in the air out of frustration. “I don’t know what you want me to-”

And of course, Riceball chose that exact moment to shoot forward in a full gallop across the pen. Keith, without a grip on the reins, fell off, letting out an unceremonious yelp. Cursing, he sat up and rubbed his lower back, looking up at Lance.

Instead of laughing, as Keith expected, Lance quickly dismounted Che and rushed over to where Keith was. “Are you okay??” Lance said in a worried tone, holding out his hand to help Keith up. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I’ve taken worse hits. I thought you said that Riceball was the most easy-going, though, and that definitely did not seem easy-going.”

Lance shook his head and looked over to where Riceball had stopped. “That usually doesn’t happen. Sometimes we give lessons and Riceball’s had tons of screaming children riding him, so I don’t know what that was all about. Haven’t had someone fall that bad in a few years, and usually, it’s on Plata or Berto.”

“Your horses have terrible names, Lance.”

“Hey! I only named Che. Nadia named Riceball and Pom-Pom, and Sylvio named Plata. Rachel was the one that named Berto.”

“I reiterate: your horses have terrible names.”

Lance chuckled and pet Che, who nuzzled into his hand. “Che feels insulted. Are you happy Keith? You have offended her.” Keith laughed back at that.

“You sure you’re okay? I myself have taken some pretty nasty falls and gotten bad, horse-related injuries over the years.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“Alright. Didn’t want to have a repeat of the Hummingbird Incident.”

“The… what?”

“Oh, did I not tell you and the other paladins about it? It happened sometime right before the fourth or fifth paladin dinner.”

“If you did, I don’t remember.”

Lance lifted a hand to his face and traced a faint scar starting over his left eyebrow and ending under his eye. Keith vaguely remembers noticing it a few times at events he saw Lance at, but he doesn’t recall hearing the story about it. 

“This, I’m saddened to say, was not a result of some badass, heroic effort of some sorts, like your scar is.”

“Then what was it?”

“Pom-Pom, who’s a scaredy cat and freaks out over any bit of movement when he’s outside of the pen, was the horse I regretfully chose to ride for a hike. At some point, a hummingbird flitted past Pom-Pom’s face and, well, he bucked me off in a panic. Right onto the rocky part of the trail.”

Keith winced just at the thought, but Lance just shrugged. “As you can see, cut the skin around my eyeball area real bad. It was swollen for like, two weeks afterwards.”

“Jeez. Must’ve hurt.”

“Yeah, like hell. I mean, I’m not usually one to cry except in maybe extreme circumstances, but hot damn, I was like, tearing up so badly in my other eye that it was hard to navigate back and keep Pom-Pom calm. Hence why we never take Pom-Pom out on hikes anymore, and also, why I never go horsebacking riding on hiking trails alone.”

Keith chuckled and Lance smiled. “Anyways, you may not have temporarily blinded yourself like I did, but your butt’s probably gonna bruise, soooo… you should head back to the house and get some ice.”

“Wh- But what about the rest of the chores?”

“I got it. We only had like, one thing left to do, and that was check the coop and gather any eggs.”

“Are you sure? That sounds like a lot of work.”

“It’s really not. And besides, even if it was, I need the exercise.”

Keith crosses his arms and raised an eyebrow in confusion. “You do this like every day, how much more exercise do you need?”

Lance gave a light chuckle and then pushed Keith towards the exit of the pen. “I can handle it, it’s just gathering eggs. You, on the other hand, go and get some ice.”

Keith sighed in defeat and walked to the fence of the pen. As he jumped over, he took a glance back at where the other man was standing and saw Lance walking over to Riceball. He cooed at the horse and ruffled his neck lovingly. And without realizing it, Keith’s chest started having this warm and fuzzy feeling.

Before he saw what happened next, though, Keith turned back around and headed towards the house, thinking, Shit, I got it bad.

——————

The days flew by. While it wasn’t necessarily an amusing week, it was a very… satisfying one to Keith. 

A few days after arriving in Cuba, Veronica turned 30 and the family went down to the beach to celebrate. Keith had a good time, and although he wasn’t blood or in-law related to anyone there, he was certainly treated like family. 

And even though they were in a Spanish-speaking country, they always talked in English around Keith. Even in passing-by conversations. He couldn’t understand a lick of Spanish, so he was grateful for the effort, but he hoped that it wasn’t too much of a burden for them to do so. 

He and Lance hung out one-on-one from time to time over the week, but not as often as Keith would’ve hoped. Still, Keith did see him a lot throughout the trip and as much as he wanted to stop it or deny it, spending time in such close proximity to Lance had his heart fluttering in a way it hadn’t in almost four or five years. As much as he hated to say it, his feelings for Lance were returning.

Which made it all the more harder that Lance seemed… stuck. Despite having made Lance laugh and joke around, Keith noticed that he had the same attitude he did that first dinner throughout his time there. His tired, sad, and somewhat shy demeanor. Keith caught him smoking a few times, but he never said anything after their talk the day he arrived in Cuba. It broke Keith’s heart to see Lance like this, a former shell of himself. And that conversation they had floated around in his head the entire time.

Lance had always felt like an outcast, and Keith never noticed. Hell, he always thought that he himself, if anyone, was the outcast of the group. Even Pidge had once called him the “loner” of the group. But after Lance’s words, Keith realized that whatever happened, he always at least had Shiro. And when Shiro wasn’t there, Lance was. 

It also saddened him to see how Lance seemed to be just as over Allura as he was at the first paladin dinner- that is to say, not at all. 

He noticed Allura’s favorite flowers all over the farm and house. He noticed Lance, when he didn’t have that smoke smell attached to him, smelled somewhat like Allura did. And of course, he noticed the big tree at the border of their farm that Lance would visit every day and had what looked like a makeshift grave for Allura.

But unlike when Lance was younger and still full of life, albeit grieving life, Lance now was just… defeated. Like he was done with life and just let it throw whatever at him.

Several times, Veronica had gone out to help Keith with the chores he helped Lance with because Lance just wouldn’t get out of bed. Veronica said it was something that happened a lot, and that Lance would eventually of course get up, but when it was actively happening, there was really nothing they could do except let Lance be. 

That isn’t to say that Keith didn’t have any fun and not-sad moments with Lance. They went horseback riding on a trail by the nearby beach a few times and that seemed like the only place that Lance was genuinely happy. He would talk to Keith about the beach and the farm and the family with such passion, and Keith loved hearing every word.

But they hadn’t really had as deep a conversation as they did that first night. And while Keith wanted Lance to be able to talk to him when he was feeling down, he understood that while he may be getting feelings for Lance again, Lance was still all about Allura. Not to mention that one week wouldn’t immediately make Lance open up to him, and it was probably a fluke that he had that first time.

And yet, the night before Keith was set to fly back to the states and Veronica and Acxa were set to fly out to Italy, Lance sought out Keith as he was taking a night walk to get some air. Veronica and Acxa were still packing, and the rest of the family was either asleep or in bed. He didn’t expect Lance to be up, but well, there he was.

“Hey, man,” he said, coming up behind Keith.

Keith turned around and gave a little wave.

“Mind if I join you?” He asked, and Keith shook his head.

“Don’t mind at all.”

The two walked in silence for a while, and the quiet gave Keith a chance to focus on the farm, even if it was in the dark. He would miss it, and he’d miss the horses. As tedious as the chores had been, it wasn’t necessarily awful and honestly, Keith liked the routine. It left him feeling organized and with purpose. 

Finally, Lance spoke up.

“So, what’re your plans after you get back to Texas?” he asked.

Keith shrugged in response. “I mean, I’ll be returning to Daibazaal like two days after getting back. I’ll probably just hang out with Pidge during one of her breaks.”

“Yeah. Kinda wish I was there with you guys when y’all hung out at your place.”

“It was just because they were there.”

“Exactly. You guys have interesting lives and see each other a lot and what am I doing?”

“I dunno Lance, I had fun this week. It’s more interesting than you think, running a farm. And it’s not like I see them that often.”

They continued walking for a bit before Lance stopped and sighed. 

“I’m gonna miss you.”

Keith’s heart stuttered. “What?”

“Yeah. I haven’t seen you, Pidge, or Shiro since the last paladin dinner. Hunk usually comes to visit at least once a month whenever he’s on Earth, but then the other six months of the year, he’s on the Atlas.”

Oh. Lance was being general.

“Well, you could always come by and visit the shack.”

“You’re never on Earth, though, save for a few weeks out of the year.”

“What about Pidge?”

“Wouldn’t want to bother her.”

“Well, I’m sure that-”

“Keith.”

Keith stopped talking and looked at Lance, who was giving a small smile.

“It’s fine, man. Everyone has their own life, and they’re busy. I mean, I probably shouldn't even leave the farm unless Rachel or Marco and their family are home too.”

“Lance…”

“Let’s change the subject,” Lance said abruptly, “I don’t want us to leave on a bad note.”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

The quiet came back, but this time, it was uncomfortable and awkward. They started walking again. Keith didn’t want to admire the beautiful farm anymore. He just wanted Lance to be okay. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t know Lance had something until he was waving his hand in front of Keith’s face.

“Uh, what?”

“Jeez, do you ever pay attention?”

“I pay plenty attention!” Keith said with an indignant snort.

Lance rolled his eyes, but he was chuckling, letting Keith know he wasn’t really annoyed.

“I asked if you still had your bayard.”

“My… what?”

“Yknow. Black paladin bayard. Turns into a sword.”

“Um, why?”

Lance shrugged. “I’m just wondering. Pidge turned hers into a museum dedicated to us, but Hunk still has his, although he doesn’t use it.”

Keith shook his head. “I never really considered it mine, even when I was flying Black. So I just gave it back to Shiro.”

Lance cocked his head to the side. “Really? I’d think it’d be a handy tool to have on missions.”

“I mean, our goal isn’t really to fight anymore. There’s not a cause to physically and violently fight for.”

“Huh.”

“Yup.”

Keith had given his bayard to Shiro after they saw the lions for the last time. He didn’t need it, and he figured that since it was unneeded, he might as well return it to its original owner. Even when he led Voltron on the fight against Honerva, he still considered Shiro to be the proper leader. 

“I still have mine. And Allura’s.”

“Really? Do you get any use out of it?”

Lance smiled sheepishly. “I mean, I don’t use the blue bayard, for obvious reasons. But the red bayard… may or may not transform into different farm tools every now and then.”

Was... he serious? “Wait wait wait, you’re telling me, that this super powerful weapon that’s been made for those set to fight for the safety of the universe… turns into like a rake?”

“Yeah… yeah it does.”

Keith couldn’t help but laugh, having to pause walking just so he could clutch his stomach. Lance gave him a glare, but Keith knew he wasn’t really upset when he started laughing with him.

“I know, I know, it’s so stupid, but like… it’s helpful?”

Keith wiped a tear from his eye and grinned. “God dammit, Lance. I’m gonna miss your dumb face.”

Lance gave him a bit of a shocked look, before returning the grin. “Well, how about instead of me coming by your shack… you come by my farm?”

Keith quickly stopped laughing and looked at him. “Really?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, man. We could use the extra help. Besides, Mamá and Papá won’t mind. They really like having guests.”

Keith slowly started nodding, letting the idea roll around in his head, before he let out a grin even bigger than the one before. “Why not.”

“Yeah, why not, Mullet?”

“Urgh, why did you ruin the moment?” Keith groaned, lightly pawing at his hair, “This is not what you would refer to as a ‘mullet,’ Lance.”

“Whatever you say, Mullet.”

——————

That night, Keith couldn’t sleep. He was pumped with anticipation for the flight the next day, but also with the thought of possibly seeing Lance again in the future. Maybe he actually would start taking more breaks. And maybe he could convince Lance to get off the farm for a bit and back to Texas, where they’d hang out with Pidge. 

When it was finally time to go, it was early in the morning, and Lance’s parents were giving Veronica and Acxa goodbye kisses, talking in fast Spanish. Keith hoisted his backpack on his back and headed for the car to the airport.

Luis, Lisa, Sylvio, and Nadia were all fast asleep, and since Lance wasn’t outside saying goodbye to his sister, he assumed he was too. Keith couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment, but he told himself he’d see Lance again, even if he didn’t know how long it’d be.

Wow. It had literally only been a week and Keith felt the same amount of mushy he did back before Lance and Allura had gotten together. It was stupid, especially since he shouldn’t be getting his hopes up. Besides, Lance needed a friend right now, not a relationship, and that was assuming he was even into Keith which, why would he be? This was the longest they’d spent time together in a collective period of time since the first paladin dinner.

Welp. Keith sighed and walked to the car, opening the trunk to put his stuff in. When Acxa came around, he greeted her.

“How was the trip, Keith?” she asked.

“It was nice. What about for you?”

Acxa smiled at that. “I always love coming here. It’s such a different atmosphere from the Blade. So peaceful, and quiet. Maybe when I retire from the Blade in the future, I’ll get some land with Veronica and we’ll settle down.”

Keith gave a small chuckle just as Veronica came over and patted Keith hard on the back. “So, Keith, how’d you enjoy Cuba, and most importantly, how did you enjoy my family?”

“Acxa just asked me that.”

“And I’m asking again.”

Keith threw his hands up in the air. “You two keep doing this! You’ve done it the entire trip! One of you will ask me a question, I’ll answer, and then immediately after, the other one will come up and ask me the same thing!”

“The power of the lesbians compel you.”

“I hate you both.”

They both laughed as Keith rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

“Well, we should get going,” Acxa said after a few minutes, “It’s better to get to the airport early so we can get something to eat there, and it’ll take us the whole day to arrive.”

Keith nodded, and walked over to the car, opening the door. They all got inside and Veronica revved up the car, rolling down the windows to wave at her parents at the house in the distance. “Love you guys! Tell the kiddos we said bye!” she shouted.

As she began backing out of the place she was parked, Keith looked out the window at the farm one last time. He was gonna really miss it.

But, he told himself, I’ll be back.

Before they could get onto the rode, though, there was a voice yelling at them from behind to stop. Veronica stopped the car and opened the door to look out, Acxa and Keith following suit. 

Lance was running to the car at a surprisingly fast pace, clutching something in his left hand and waving with his right hand. “I can’t believe you guys were gonna leave without saying bye to me!” he huffed, stopping next to the car door.

“Well, you took too long to get up,” Veronica said, rolling her eyes. But, she still got out of the car to give Lance a hug. Acxa gave a little smile and wave to Lance, who returned the gesture.

Finally, he turned to Keith. “I’ll see you around, Kogane,” he said, flashing Keith a grin.

Keith nodded eagerly, and said, “Yeah, will do.”

“Oh! And one last thing!”

Lance handed Keith a nice wooden box with some engravings in Spanish all over it.

“What’s this?” he asked, turning the box around in his hands.

“You’ll have to wait and see. Open it when you get back to the states.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance, but slowly nodded. “Alright, Lance.”

Veronica flashed Acxa a look, that Keith couldn’t help but noticing. 

“Well, I should probably get back to the house, soooo… you guys have a nice flight back. And Veronica, Acxa, have a nice time in Italy. Make sure to bring me back something.”

With a small salute, Lance turned and started jogging back to the house. Keith once again looked at the box in his hands, but decided to do as Lance said and wait to open it. “Alright gang,” Veronica chirped, turning the car back on, “Get ready for the road trip back! And yes, it will be complete with my horrible singing, so be prepared!”

Keith and Acxa collectively groaned, but it was all in good fun. And so, they were off.

——————

When he got back to his shack, he finally opened the box. The entire flight, he itched to open it, but he listened to Lance and waited.

So when he was finally back in Texas, in his pajamas on his couch, Kosmo curled up on the floor beneath him, he finally unlocked it and opened it up.

Keith almost dropped it in surprise. He hadn’t known what to expect from Lance, be he certainly didn’t expect this.

It was Lance’s bayard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: @cafri_jonique


	3. Blue and Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is having a hard time. The same hard time he's had since Allura's sacrifice.

He was a slump, alright.

It’d been years, and yet… Lance still wasn’t over Allura.

Maybe the first two or three years after it happened, Lance was still energetic, even if he was sad. He actually wasn’t ready to settle down at the time, and attempted to continue working at the Garrison.

His family noticed it, though. He wasn’t able to focus on work. He was always distracted. He was pushing himself away from everyone. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t continue. He was stuck.

So, his family bought some fertile land in Cuba and built a house. Invited him to come live there. “You could always go back to the Garrison,” they said, “if you get tired of farming.”

And so Lance thought that maybe, at that moment, he needed something simple in life. Something peaceful and calm. Maybe he should finally just leave the war behind.

Well, he didn’t know whether it helped or not. Years had gone by since then. He was more focused, yeah, but he also had more time to think.

He watched as his friends around him grew up. Watched on the intergalactic news stations how the Atlas has visited yet another planet and solved yet another conflict. How the Blade of Marmora had helped feed another shelter of homeless children. How the Garrison had come up with another piece of world-changing technology. How Coran was unanimously elected as the first president of Altea. Even members of Lance’s family moved on.

Rachel moved to Spain, became a doctor, and settled down, getting married and even having a few kids. Marco travelled the world’s most exotic and cultural places as a freelance photographer. Even then, he adopted a kid along the way, so he wasn’t alone when he travelled. Veronica continued working on the Atlas and got married to her longtime girlfriend Acxa.

And here Lance was, farming, milking cows, and staying stuck in the past. Sure, he occasionally hopped over to Altea to give classes a special visit and talk about his time as a paladin, but he didn’t go often enough for it to be like a job. 

Everywhere he went, he was reminded of Allura. He grew her favorite flowers everywhere. He set up a little grave under a tree at the far side of the farm. He even implemented items in his daily skincare routine that was reminiscent of how Allura smelled.

Even if he didn’t do any of, though, he still couldn’t forget her. There was a big screaming reminder of her and the events that happened whenever he looked in the mirror. A few times, out of a fit of anger and sadness back during the first year after Allura died, he tried scratching the marks off, but all that did was bring him pain. And besides, they always healed within the minute, not even a scar left behind.

Lance hadn’t been with anyone else since Allura. It was so different from what he was back before he, Pidge, and Hunk snuck out that one fateful night. Back then, he went through girls like one might with batteries. He had at one point dated a guy, when he was still testing out his sexuality, but that of course didn’t go well, although it did confirm his suspicions that he was bisexual. Never got really attached to anyone. He never got his heart broken, he was the one breaking them.

Now, though, he didn’t think he had the capacity to be with anyone else. He’d gone through so much heartbreak that it was hard to even look at another attractive person his age. No need to come out to his family- or anyone, for that matter- since he wasn’t gonna be with anyone any time soon. 

He picked up smoking a few years after. Lance knew it was bad for him, but it seemed to be the one thing that calmed him down. Like he was doing something bad and getting away with it. Although he never smoked in the house or when his nephews and nieces were watching; he wanted to set a good example, and even though they could smell it, he knew that them seeing it would really not be good.

Make sure they wouldn’t end up like him. That they’d actually proceed in life and not end up mentally stuck.

Lance was lonely. He had always, in hindsight, been lonely, ever since Shiro first disappeared, but this was even worse. He was happy for his former teammates and his family, but it was… hard, suffice to say, to see everyone move as forward as they did while he stayed behind. See everyone get engaged, then married, then have kids. Or if they weren’t doing that, they were doing something productive to the universe.

And it was entirely his fault. If he actually tried and made an effort, he’d be out helping the universe too, maybe on the Atlas with Hunk and Shiro, or perhaps teaching at the Garrison with Pidge. Nothing was stopping him. Despite him being washed-up, he still used to be a paladin of Voltron, and that gave him opportunity. He could pretty much do anything he so desired, pick any career he wanted. And yet, he didn’t. He voluntarily continued to live this dead-end life, and that, to him, was the absolute worst part. 

Sometimes, Lance just couldn’t bring himself to get up in the morning, the sadness, worthlessness, and defeat consuming him. He usually didn’t cry during these episodes- he’d just curl up and turn to the side. Stare off into nothing. Wouldn’t sleep, but wouldn’t move. Stay like that half the day. He always got up. But when he was down, his family didn’t bug him. His mom would just walk in, leave a plate of breakfast on his dresser, and leave. 

Then, after hours passed, he’d slowly get up, get dressed, and walk out to work on the farm without a word. Leave a bouquet of Allura’s flowers on her grave. Stand there for a good solid hour, just watching and thinking. Smoke a cigarette or two. No one bothered him during that either.

Pidge and Shiro has never been on the farm. Hunk had, and when he wasn’t travelling on the Atlas, he’d visit a lot, usually bringing his girlfriend Shay. But it wasn’t enough, as selfish as that was to Lance. Hunk’s occasional visits weren’t enough to fill the void left behind in him.

And then Keith, inexplicably, was on the farm.

Well, it wasn’t as inexplicable as Lance made it out to be- Veronica and Acxa were visiting the family during their honeymoon to celebrate Veronica’s 30th birthday, and they’d get a discount if they brought a third person on the flight. Keith just happened to be on Earth and on vacation during this time, so Acxa had invited him. Very reasonable and logical explanation.

But Lance was… excited, for the first time in a long time. Keith had never been on the farm before, and Lance was eager to show off all the work he and his family had done to the land over the past six years. Hunk had visited way too often and had himself seen it grow from just a few plants, so there was nothing to impress there.

Maybe… if he could just have one of his former teammates impressed with his life, he could feel some satisfaction with what he’s done. 

Keith’s visit was only a week, but Lance enjoyed it. They had one or two deep conversations about stuff, but Lance was determined to keep it light-hearted so he didn’t scare Keith away and give him the impression that his life was anything but satisfactory. 

The night before Keith left, they talked about their bayards for a bit. Keith had said that he gave the black paladin bayard back to Shiro. That made Lance think. He had both the red paladin and blue paladin bayards. Both the lions that he flew. He always felt that Keith was both a better leader and a better right-hand-man than he was, so maybe… maybe he’d like his old bayard back.

It was an impulsive choice he made, to give Keith the box he kept the red bayard in and subsequently, the red bayard itself. He didn’t know how Keith would react, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. But he thought, if anyone was to have a bayard, it should be Keith. Lance was the one that didn’t really have a place in Voltron if Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Hunk, AND Allura were all connected to a lion. Hell, blue had even broken her connection to him for whatever reason. 

He had also invited Keith to come back. Keith may be busy with Blade work, but at least he wasn’t obligated to be gone for six consecutive months at a time like Hunk was. So maybe… maybe he’d come back and give Lance the company he so desperately needed. Maybe it was selfish of him to want Keith to take time out of his life to visit, but… Lance was just so lonely. He didn’t have to energy or motivation to go make other close friends his age in the town he lived in or even Altea. He missed Pidge and Hunk so much. Shiro and Keith he may not have been as originally close to, but he missed them just as much. 

Keith had smiled back at him and agreed to come back, whenever that may be. And Lance looked forward to it.

He didn’t hear from Keith for almost a month, though. Not even a text of acknowledgement over the bayard. Lance hadn’t give the bayard to him for any recognition or thanks, but he though Keith would have least let him know whether he was happy to have his old bayard back or not.

Well, Lance got his answer, even if it wasn’t from Keith. He and his family were watching some intergalactic news channel, and it featured some of the units from the Blades, including Keith’s. There was footage of his unit and another fighting off these giant, scary-looking lizard things from reaching a nursery. And what did Lance see? Keith using the red bayard, along with his knife. 

Seems like he had more use for it than Lance did. 

Good. Good.

It was dead in the middle of night that Lance’s phone started ringing. It woke him up, but also confused him since no one usually called him except his family and Hunk, who knew what timezone he was in and did their best to call when he would be awake. Too tired to look at the name of the person who was calling, he answered with a mumbled, “Hello?”

“Hey Lance, it’s Keith.”

“Oh, Keith… hey buddy.”

“Wh- are you okay? You sound like you have a sore throat.”

Lance groaned. “It’s 2 in the morning, Kogane.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll call back later, then.”

Even though Keith couldn’t see him, Lance waved his hand around in dismissal.

“No no, I’m up now. Might as well tell me what you were calling about.”

There was silence for a few seconds, and Lance wondered if Keith had already hung up or if the connection was bad wherever Keith was. Then, Keith’s voice came back on.

“Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be on Earth sometime soon for a little bit with Mom, and if you still want me to come visit? And if that also extends to my mother?”

Oh, Keith was actually taking him up on his offer?

“Didn’t you have a long vacation like, a few weeks ago?”

“Yeah, well, typically, members of the Blade get a week and a half off every other month normally, although it excludes extra vacations.”

Lance slowly sat up in bed and stretched. “Okay? Well, didn’t you just take a vacation that was longer than a week and a half? And it hasn’t been a month yet.”

More silence. For longer this time.

“Do you not want me to come?” Keith’s voice sounded neutral, but Lance could detect a little bit of hurt in there somewhere. It made him realize that maybe he was scaring Keith off from coming, in his sleepy, just woken-up state, so he quickly backpedaled.

“No no no, that’s not it! I’m just tired and I get a little irritable when I’m tired.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, yeah. So when will you and Krolia be on Earth?”

“Should be in like, two weeks.”

“Cool, cool. I’ll see you then, right?”

“Yeah, see you.”

And then he hung up. Lance still held the phone to his ear for a few seconds as he let the conversation sink in. So Keith was visiting. And his mother. Well, Mamá and Papá wouldn’t mind. Neither would Luis and Lisa.

Lance slumped back on his pillow and closed his eyes. He’d deal with it all in the morning.

——————

The weeks leading up to Keith’s second visit flew by. 

Lance didn’t prepare or anything. There wasn’t really anything to prepare, other than two of the guest rooms they had. Of course, the three days before Keith and Krolia were supposed to arrive, his parents were scrambling to make the house all neat and nice. Lance usually helped out with chores, but he didn’t this time simply for the fact that Keith probably wouldn’t care.

His mom was excited for guests, especially since it was Keith and she seemed to have taken a great liking to him. Luis and Lisa were actually out of town, with Sylvio and Nadia of course, so it was just Lance and his parents. They’d certainly need the help on the farm since all hands were not on deck. Although, maybe Lance shouldn’t assume that they were gonna help. After all, they were on vacation. Last time, Keith hadn’t wanted the break, but now, he was taking it willingly, so… yeah, he probably shouldn’t make that assumption.

The day that they arrived, Lance spent the morning making the beds in the guest rooms and adding extra pillows and blankets after he fed the animals. He subconsciously picked out a red motif for Keith’s room, which he didn’t notice until he stepped back and dusted his hands off. 

After that, Lance ate lunch, smoked a cigarette, completed his daily mourning at Allura’s grave, and worked on farm chores. When he saw an airport taxi pull up in the driveway in the distance during the late afternoon, he was taking out weeds from some of the crops. He let his straw hat fall to his back and stood up, wiping his forehead.

As expected, Keith and Krolia stepped out and went to take their bags. Lance gave a little wave when they started down the dirt path to the house. He walked over to greet them and took off his gloves.

“Hey Keith, hey Krolia,” he said, holding out his hand. Keith shook it with a smile, Krolia following suit afterwards.

“Lance,” Krolia said, nodding curtly. If it were anyone else, Lance would think that they just didn’t like him which, to be fair, might also extend to Krolia. However, he also knew that Krolia acted this way to everyone, so he wasn’t too unsettled and worried.

“Sorry I look like a mess. I was just pulling weeds out around the cassava plants. I’ve been running around all day since Luis, Lisa, and the niblings are out of town and there is no way Mamá is doing that.”

“What about your dad?”

“He’s getting groceries in town.”

Keith nodded and replied, “Makes sense.”

Lance grinned and led the way to the front door, opening. “Mamá! Keith and his mother are here! I’m a bit dirty right now, but I won’t be in the house that long!” he shouted, making sure his mom knew he was coming in.

Before he could reach their guests rooms, though, Lance’s mom rushed out of the kitchen, holding a big spoon. She started greeting them with rushed Spanish, before remembering that they couldn’t understand it. 

“Ay, Keith, it’s nice to see you again so soon! And this must be your mother, Ms…?”

“Please call me Krolia.” 

Krolia lit up like a fuse and walked over to shake her hand, sounding less cold. Lance, standing next to Keith, watched as their moms started talking excitedly and welcoming/being welcomed warmly as if they were old friends. Raising one eyebrow, he looked over at Keith and asked, “Is… this a mom thing?”

Keith gave him what looked like an equally confused look and shrugged. “I don’t know, Lance, I’m not a mom.”

Lance snorted and rolled his eyes. “Anyways, if you’re done with the sass, Kogane, please feel free to go to the guest room by yourself. It’s the same room as last time.”

“Alright.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna finish pulling weeds. I’ll see you later.”

With that, he walked out and went back to the field that had the cassava plants he was clearing up. 

After about half an hour, he saw a figure in his peripheral vision exit the house and move towards him. When he looked up, he saw Keith in more farm-appropriate clothes with the sleeves of his jacked pushed up.

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“Came out to help. Do you have an extra pair of gloves?”

Lance laughed. “Aren’t you supposed to be on break?”

“Well, last time I was here, I was also on vacation, but I still had to do chores.”

“That’s because you didn’t want to take a vacation in the first place. Besides, Veronica was also here and she makes everyone do shit. Except maybe Acxa and our parents.”

They both chuckled at that. “So, got extra gloves? Or should I just use my hands?”

“You really don’t have to help out.”

“I want to.”

“Aren’t you already wearing gloves?”

“They’re fingerless, Lance.”

“Yeah they are, you fucking emo child.”

Keith rolled his eyes and put one hand on his hip. “Come on, Lance.”

Lance sighed, defeated. “You can just use your hands, unless you’re really that opposed to getting them dirty. In that case, I’ll go get another pair from the tool shed.”

“Why do you wear gloves then, if you don’t need to?”

“Uh, excuse you. Unlike you, I actually care about keeping my hands nice and soft, my nails smooth, even, and unchipped. I mean, look at these!”

He reached out and grabbed Keith’s hand, fingers running over his uneven cuticles and short, stubby nails. “This is a disgrace! Do you bite your nails or are you just this bad at nail care?”

“How soft can a farm boy keep his hands?” Keith asked, pulling his hand back.

“As soft as I’m able to while working,” Lance huffed in response.

Taking an exasperated breath, Keith bent down and started pulling out weeds alongside Lance. It went by much more quickly with someone helping him. Even so, by the time the finished, the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. Lance stood up and stretched. He motioned for Keith to follow him to the tool shed, where he took off his gloves and boots before placing the gloves on a shelf and the boots next to the door. He then grabbed a pair of normal sneakers and put them on.

Afterwards, he led Keith back to the house, stating, “I’m gonna shower before dinner. I suggest you do the same.” Keith smiled and nodded as he followed Lance through the front door to the house. He watched as Keith then went back to his room, presumably to get his toiletries. With a sigh, Lance went to do the same himself.

——————

Of course Lance couldn’t miss the mouth-watering smell of his mom’s cooking, even all the way in his bathroom and even after applying a million scented things.

After his hair was finally dry, he dressed himself and stepped out to the living room. Papá was home and already seated at the table, along with Krolia. Mamá was just bringing out the last of the food for dinner, and gave him a nod and a smile when he walked over to help her.

Krolia was back to her usual cold manner, so maybe it was a mom thing. Just as Lance sat down, Keith entered the dining room, his hair damp and flowing down his shoulders and back. Lance raised one eyebrow. Keith’s hair was really long now.

Dinner was good. As expected. Krolia and Mamá continues to hit it off, much to both Lance and Keith’s delight. Although, Lance didn’t really talk. He never did at meals, unless it was just him and one other person. Lately, he just never had much to say. Especially since usually, the only people he was eating with was his family, who already knew everything. Of course, he always answered any questions when he was asked. But he still didn’t usually feel like he had much to say, even with non-family guests. 

Lance guessed that Keith was the same way, given his usual awkwardness and lack of initiation of conversations. He felt a little bit of comfort knowing that someone was the same when it came to talking at dinner.

After everyone was finished eating, Lance cleared the table with his mom. Krolia was chatting with his dad, and Keith was leaning on his hand, looking bored. When the last dish was taken of the table, he grabbed a bucket full of half-eaten carrots and watermelon rinds that was next to the trash can. He wakes back into the dining room all the way to the front door and grabbed his jacket.

“Hey Papá, I’m gonna go give the horses a treat. I’ll be back in a little,” he said, shoving his shoes on. His dad gave him a smile and nodded.

Keith hurriedly stood up before Lance left out the door. “I’ll come with.”

Lance gave him a nod and motioned for him to hurry. When they got on the path to the stables, Lance expected it to be silent, but to his surprise, Keith was the one to start talking.

“Thanks for the bayard.”

Lance gave a big smile. “No problem, man. It really was always yours.”

Keith shrugged. “I guess. But it’s also yours; you know.” 

Shaking his head, Lance looked down at the ground with a sorrowful smile. “I was never really as deserving of any lion as you and Allura.”

He sighed.

“Whatever you were on Voltron, you did a good job. Whether it was as its right hand man or its leader.”

He looked at Keith, who was also looking at the ground, but felt a twinge or confusion. Was Keith… a little flushed? 

“Hey, are you cold? Do you need my jacket?”

Keith snapped his head up towards Lance. “What? No! Why?”

“You look a little red. I get it, it’s misleading. Hot during the day and a little chilly at night,” Lance responded.

Keith’s cheeks only seemed to darken and his eyes widened. “Oh,” he said, looking away, “No, I, uh, I don’t need a jacket.”

“Suit yourself,” Lance said, shrugging, “What was I talking about again?”

“You were talking about Voltron.”

“Ah, right.”

And that’s when the awkward quiet hit. Lovely. Lance didn’t know what to say, and Keith wasn’t talking anymore, so… shit. This was what he wanted to avoid. He didn’t want to scare off anyone who he might have any hope of them visiting again.

Maybe when he was younger, he’d have know what to say. Or at least have said something, anything. Back then he couldn’t shut up, so at least there was always a conversation running.

Things were different now, and unlike his old, charismatic self, he struggled to find something to say.

“So… the Blade of Marmora, amirite?”

“What?”

“How’s that been going this month?”

“Uh, fine, I guess?”

“Saw you on the news.”

“Yeah, we’re always on the news.”

And like that, the conversation shut off again. Lance tried again.

“So, hows Acxa? Is she kicking ass, like usual?”

“Mhm.”

“You two make a good team, you know?”

“I suppose.” Keith scratched his head. 

“Um… haha, funny thing.”

“Hm?”

“I used to think that Acxa liked you. Like-liked you, I mean.”

Keith gave him a horrified look. “What?!” 

“Uh…” Lance trailed off, disliking the uncomfortable aura Keith was giving, “I mean…” Fuck.

“I mean, she was pretty clingy to you back when we saw her after leaving the rift. I dunno man, I got massive vibes from her.”

“Vibes?”

“Yeah. I mean, my gaydar’s pretty wack, so… literally had no idea that she was into girls.”

“I wouldn’t have dated her even if she had liked me in that way.”

“Why, ‘cause she’s like five years older in Galra age?”

“Jeez, Lance, your gaydar really is off.”

Lance stopped. Physically, because they had reached the stables, but mentally, because of what Keith had said. “What?” he replied stupidly.

Keith huffed. “Did you really not know?”

Lance shook his head, still confused. “Wait, but didn’t you have that thing with uhh, what’s her name, uh…”

“Uh?”

“Leila Steiner!” Lance said, snapping his fingers, “From back at the Garrison.”

Keith visibly rolled his eyes. “I was still in denial back then, and a hated every moment of our so-called ‘relationship.’ Besides, that lasted like, less than two weeks.”

“I feel dumb now. Well, dumber than I usually am.”

Lance unlocked the door to the stables and picked up the bucket. He opened the door and walked inside, Keith behind him. “Have you been with anyone recently?”

Keith bobbed his head back and forth in a “so-so” motion. “I’ve been with a few people, but they usually didn’t last much longer than a few months tops.”

Lance laughed out at that. “I mean, that’s longer than me, pal!” Keith gave him what looked like a concerned look, but didn’t say anything, so Lance asked, “Been with anyone I know?”

“Uhh… why are we talking about my love life now?”

“Come on, Kogane. The juiciest gossip I get is from Nadia and Sylvio about stupid shit that happens at school. Hunk and Shay’s relationship is like, perfect, so there’s no drama there, and I haven’t really talked directly to Pidge and Shiro for a while, so I wouldn’t know how their lives are going. Even Coran’s life as president of Altea is more boring than you’d think.”

Keith rolled his eyes again. “Well, you of all people do not need to hear about my sad love life.”

Lance pouted, but didn’t press any further. He walked over to Berto’s pen and picked a a watermelon rind out of the bucket, feeding him. “Come on Keith, these horses aren’t gonna get their dessert by themselves.”

Keith, in response, crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side in a smirk. “You sure about that, Lance?”

“Wh- Pom-Pom!” Lance yelped, looking to the side to see Pom-Pom squeezing his head through the fence bars and attempting to reach the bucket. He quickly scooted the bucket away and gave Pom-Pom a light smack on the neck. “You, out of everyone else here, don’t need anymore fat on your belly!” 

When he turned to walk to another horse though, he tripped over the bucket and face-planted the hay on the floor of the stables. “Motherfucker!” he yelped on the way down.

Keith burst into laughter, and Lance had to appreciate the sound as he stood up again. He didn’t hear Keith laugh often whenever he saw him, and he had a nice laugh. When he accidentally snorted, however, and quickly covered his mouth, Lance joined him in his laugher. It got really bad though, when Keith fell over from laughing so hard. Lance doubled over, clutching his stomach, tears coming out of his eyes.

“Shh-shh don’t- don’t laugh at me! You were the one that f-f-fell- fell first!” Keith giggled, attempt to make himself serious again and stand up, but utterly failing. 

It lasted for a good two more minutes, but eventually, thankfully, it died down. They were both panting heavily. Even the horses around them seemed to be a bit livelier and happier. Lance slowly walked over and picked the bucket up again. He tossed Keith a watermelon rind and a carrot. “Go feed Che and Plata.”

He himself reached into the bucket and grabbed a small, half-eaten carrot. “Okay Pom-Pom, you get what you want. But you don’t get the whole thing,” he said, nudging the carrot to his mouth. He quickly bit it out of his hand, so Lance moved over to grab a watermelon rind for Riceball. 

They finished giving the horses their treats, and went back to the path, still slightly giggly. Lance rolled his shoulders in a nice stretch as they walked down the dirt road.

“Didn’t know you were a snorter, Kogane.”

“What… the hell? That’s such a weird way to phrase it!”

“I’m not wrong. You snorted while laughing, henceforth, you are a snorter.”

Keith put his hands in his pockets, looking a little embarrassed. “I’m not- I don’t snort- that much…” he mumbled, turning away.

“It’s kinda cute.”

“... What?”

“I said, it’s kinda cute. You shouldn’t be embarrassed of your laugh.”

Keith gave a little smile, but didn’t say anything. 

Neither of them said anything the rest of the walk.

——————

The next day, after he and his dad finished the morning outside chores, Lance set to work on putting the produce they were gonna sell at the farmer’s market into crates. They were going the next day, but wanted to keep the vegetables and fruits as fresh as possible.

He thought about waking Keith up, but decided against it. Lance wasn’t as cruel as Veronica in terms of waking guests up to force them to work on the farm early in the morning, especially since Keith was probably gonna have to get used to being an hour off schedule.

And besides, even though Keith had insisted on helping out the night before, he really didn’t want to make Keith do too much work. This was his time off from the Blades, so he should enjoy it. Get all the benefits of being on a farm, but none of the negatives. 

Hunk and Shay were the same way whenever they were over. Always wanting to help out. Lance never had the words to express how grateful he was to them, and how much of a help they were, so he would just insist that they didn’t have to do anything. It was the same thing with Keith, apparently.

Needless to say, Keith did sleep in for like half the day, and when he finally got up, Lance and Papá were just finishing up stacking the crates of produce in the car. They weren’t planning on going into town that day, so since the car wasn’t gonna be used until they travelled to the farmer’s market, they figured they could save time and trouble the next day. 

Lunch was already being made, so literally the minute Keith stepped out of the house, Lance and his dad walked back in. 

“Wh- where’re you guys going?”

“Uh, to eat lunch?”

“But… wait, how late is it?”

Lance chuckled. “Dude, it’s like, 1:00.”

Keith’s eyes widened and he quickly looked across to where the barn was, and where the truck filled with crates was. “Everything’s already done?! Why didn’t you wake me up?!”

Lance shrugged. “You’re just like Hunk, you know that? Always determined to do work even though you’re on vacation.”

Keith looked away. “I just don’t wanna be a burden.”

“And you’re not! You’re a guest right now.”

“Well… what if I enjoy doing farm work?”

Lance went quiet at that and thought for a moment. “If that’s the case, then I’d suggest you stop making it seem like you only do it because you don’t want to seem like a burden.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Well, I do enjoy it. Most of it, anyways. I am never going back into the coop.”

“What, did my hens put the fear of God in you?”

“You’re birds are evil, Lance. Evil.”

They both chuckled and Lance held open the door. “There’s plenty of work to do after lunch, so… let’s go eat something, okay?” Lance said, smiling. Keith returned the smile and nodded, following him inside.

——————

“So… what do you think?”

Lance and Keith were hiking on Che and Plata down the beach on a rather warm evening. Keith had finally laid down something juicy for Lance to dig his teeth into, although it wasn’t about himself.

Away from the prying ears of Krolia, Keith was asking Lance how one should determine whether two people were courting each other or not. Lance had been cheeky, and asked if it was about Keith and someone else, but that theory was effectively shut down when Keith had instead insisted he was talking about Krolia and Kolivan.

Lance was intrigued to hear about any possible secret relationship, and listened closely to all the details that would point to such a thing. He wasn’t lying when he said that the most interesting gossip he got was from Nadia and Sylvio’s school adventures.

“I think they’re totally making heart eyes at each other,” Lance said, “The question is, for how long.”

Keith shrugged. “I honestly have no idea, that’s why I’m asking you. You may have a shitty gaydar, but you do know more about spotting relationships than I do.”

Lance’s left hand let go of the reins and stroked his chin. “And you’re sure you only just started noticing this?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, I swear. I don’t know if it’s because it happened only recently or if I’m just not very observant.”

Lance snorted. “You’re plenty observant, Kogane, but when it comes to romance…”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to say anything.”

“Have you asked her about it?”

“I mean… not really…”

Lance snapped his fingers. “Then that’s where you start.”

“Are you kidding?! That’d be so awkward!”

“It’s your mother, Keith, not some random person you have to be professional around.”

“Still, that’s kind of a weird thing to do. Ask your mom about their love life when it doesn’t involve your dad, I mean.”

“That’s a good point… maybe you could ask Kolivan?”

“Lance, that’s even worse. Kolivan’s like my former boss.”

“Oh, ew, yeah, I see now.”

Lance slowly pulled at the reins to stop Che, and Keith did the same, making Plata slowly coming to a stop next to him.

“What if we tried to squeeze the information out of her?”

Keith furrowed his brows. “Like… interrogate her?”

“What? No no no, I mean try to get her to slip up. That way you don’t have to be the one that started the conversation with either of them.”

“How do we do that?”

“Leave it to me.”

“Alright…” Keith sounded suspicious. Lance clicked his tongue to get Che to start walking again and they continued on their path.

“So, if they actually are together, how do you feel, man?”

Keith shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess, if they are, I feel a little hurt that neither of them told me? It’s not like I’m gonna freak out.”

“Aside from the not-good feeling of people you trust not telling you something important… how would you feel?”

“I guess… I want my mom to be happy, you know? The last person she was seriously romantically with was my dad, and that was a really long time ago. She didn’t even really get to say goodbye.”

“Jeez, that’s rough. How old were you again? When he passed away, I mean.”

“Nine.”

“Nine, huh.”

If Lance had been closer to where Keith was riding Plata, he’d have patted his back in consolation. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go through your childhood and teenage years without any parents. Although, he did understand what losing a loved one was like.

“So, yeah. I want my mom to be happy. Kolivan’s a good guy, so if it were anyone, I’d want it to be him.”

“That makes sense. So, they’d have your blessing.”

“It really isn’t up to me, but theoretically, yes.”

With that, they both maneuvered to turn their horses around and walk back from where they came from.

For a little bit, no one said anything, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. It really wasn’t even all that silent. Both Lance and Keith could hear the waves lightly crashing against the sand, birds squawking about, joyful screams from beachgoers in the distance.

But Keith had brought up his dad, even if it was for a different subject, and Lance was curious about him.

“What was your dad like?” 

“He was nice.”

“Just nice?”

“No, I mean, like kind. He was kind.”

“Oh.”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, he was always doing stuff for others. He was a fireman, you know.”

“Is that how he… ?”

“Yeah.”

Lance racked his brain for a different, less depressing question about Keith’s dad. “What was his name?”

“Texas.”

“His name was Texas.”

“Yup.”

"And he lived in Texas."

"... Yup."

“That’s so weird! And hopefully coincidental? If not, your grandparents are cruel.”

“Never knew them.”

“Wait, really?”

“I didn’t know anyone in my dad’s family. He didn’t have any siblings, and he never talked about his parents. The only ties I have to any family beyond him is the name ‘Kogane,’ but lots of people have that as a surname.”

“Isn’t Kogane like, Asian?”

“Yeah. Japanese, actually.”

“Wait, are you Japanese? Like Shiro? You don’t really look... that Asian, no offense. Although now that I'm looking... maybe a little? I don't know.”

“My dad was half Japanese. Obviously on his dad’s side.”

“Ah, makes sense.”

“Although I cannot speak Japanese at all. I am trash at learning different languages.”

Lance chuckled, and Keith continued.

“What about you, Lance? Where does a ‘boy from Cuba’ get the very not-Latino last name of McClain?”

Lance gave a little snort at that. Everyone usually asked him that at one point or another, so he took in a deep breath and prepared to go massively in depth of where he was from.

“Both my parents were born in Cuba, although my mom was raised in Mexico since her mom was Mexican. Her last name is Serrano, and I'll get to that in a minute. We've had a last name like that for the past few generations. However, my paternal great great great granddad was, get this- Irish.”

“Wh- Irish?!”

“I know, right? Makes you wonder how an Irishman came into contact with a Latina gal, since as you can tell by the amount of ‘greats’ in front of his title, it was a really long time ago.”

“That’s so weird.”

“And so it was passed down through all of my paternal grandfathers to my dad, and then of course, to me.”

“Huh. Wait, McClain sounds more… Scottish than Irish.”

“It does,” Lance said, shrugging, “But that’s as far back as we were able to trace the McClain name in our family."

“I’m guessing you were born in Cuba, though, right?”

“Yup! Although we moved to California when I was like, seven. Nadia and Sylvio were actually born in the US.”

“What about the rest of your siblings?”

“All of my brothers and sisters were born in Cuba as well. Speaking of which, Veronica and Marco actually go under Serrano.”

"Wait... they have different last names?"

"Yeah. Just to kind of split it so that dear 'ol dad didn't get all the credit for the family."

"Why didn't they just combine the last names? Like with a hyphen or something?"

"Beats me. Although, then again, does 'Serrano-McClain' or 'McClain-Serrano' even sound nice?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right, they do not go together."

"Yeah, I'm always right."

"Oh fuck off."

Lance continued to go on and on about what he knew about where he was from. He loved talking about his family and he loved his heritage and culture, and besides, at the very least, the reactions of people when he explained his very distant Irish ancestry were pretty funny. 

They went on talking about it all the way back to the car, even as they loaded the horses into their towing stalls.

The beach always made Lance feel happy, and that day did not disappoint 

——————

Despite what Lance and Keith originally thought, it was harder than they’d expected to try and make Krolia crack without outright asking. Lance would occasionally ask a casual question about whether anyone was in any relationships, keeping the pronouns vague. His parents gave him funny looks, but he would continue anyways.

Krolia either really wasn’t involved any more than professionally with Kolivan or she was extremely tight-lipped. Which… Keith had told Lance she was. 

They finally gave up after the fifth day of trying. When Krolia had turned the question around and asked Lance if he was in a relationship. Lance had just looked down and went quiet. Talking about his own relationships got him thinking about Allura, which did no favors to his mood.

His mom gave him a worried look, and quickly changed the subject, but he was still left with ugly feelings in his gut. Keith had given him a sympathetic look, and asked if he was okay later. Lance just told him that he didn’t really feel like pushing anymore, and if Keith himself figured anything out, to let him know.

The next day started off with one of his episodes, which he actually hadn’t had since Keith and Krolia had arrived on the farm. He usually tried to avoid these whenever guests were over, but he just couldn’t help it, and stayed in bed, curled up. 

When he finally got up, Keith and Krolia seemed to be walking on eggshells, which was common for people who weren’t used to dealing with Lance during and after an episode. He knew it had happened a few times when Keith had first visited the farm, but at least Keith had people who were somewhat close to his age, like Veronica and Acxa. This time, he just had a bunch of older people.

Mamá had insisted that they all take a day off to go to the beach the next day, which Lance was grateful for. The beach always calmed him down, and made him feel at least a little more positive than he usually did. 

So that was how he ended up sitting on a towel in the warm sand, eating chips with his dad.

Lance and Papá didn’t go into the water. Mamá, Keith, and even Krolia were swimming around. Well, Keith was swimming, Krolia and Mamá were just standing waist-deep in water and talking.

Lance hadn’t gone swimming in a while. Usually, he hiked on the beach on horseback, but he hadn’t gone swimming in months. It was disappointing that the one day the family decided to go to the beach to actually get in the water was the day he was utterly fatigued from the previous one. 

He didn’t want to seem like a buzzkill, though. Especially not to Keith, and especially not after a day-long episode. So he tagged along, even though he was really tired. They were only really going to the beach because of him, anyways, and he didn’t want to make them feel bad. Still, he definitely acted tired.

Maybe if his nieces or nephews were there, he would’ve acted a bit more lively, but since it was all adults that understood the crippling stress and tiredness he felt… he could afford to seem tired. Though he was sure that once Nadia and Sylvio attend high school, they’d also understand.

Papá went to collect some seashells, so Lance was left alone with the towels. He slathered sunscreen on the parts of his skin exposed to the elements and moved one of the towels in the sun. Before laying down, though, Keith came running back up the shore. “Hey, are you gonna go swimming with us?”

Lance gave a shrug. “I dunno man. I’m super tired right now, so I was gonna just take a nap in the sun.”

Keith tossed him a beach ball. “You’d dry off afterwards pretty nicely in the sun,” he said, untying his hair from his ponytail. He shook his head a few times, and Lance felt a few droplets of water spray his face. Well… maybe just for a little bit.

Lance sighed and stood up, dusting sand off of his swim trunks. Keith flashed him a little smirk as Lance threw the ball back at him. His fingers reached for his shirt and he quickly threw it over his head, rolling it into a ball. He stretched his arms for a few seconds before turning back to Keith… and found him staring.

“What?”

Keith quickly looked away. “Nothing.”

Lance quirked his eyebrows up. “You checking me out?” he teased

“What? No!”

“It’s cool, you can admire my rock solid six-pack as much as you want.”

“Wh- six pack? Are you sure we’re seeing the same thing?”

Lance laughed and nudged Keith’s arm. “I’m just kidding. Lighten up a bit. Although… you do admit I have abs, right?”

Keith rolled his eyes at that. “Sure, Lance. Whatever you say.”

“Hey, gotta make sure all that work on the farm is paying off.”

They walked to the edge of where the tide pulled before retreating. Lance took a deep breath in through his nose to get a good smell of the salty water and the spray of sea foam. He slowly stepped into the water and let his toes jostle the sand around his feet.

“Do you always take this long to just get in the water?”

Keith was looking back at him, already knees deep. Rolling his eyes, Lance replied, “I dunno, maybe I enjoy savoring the ocean? We may have travelled all over the galaxy, but the best ocean is the one on Earth, Keith, and I intend to enjoy it no matter how much I’ve been to the beach.”

“Right, right.”

On that note, he moved to get deeper into the water, relishing the cool feel against his skin. He didn’t get much time to enjoy it, though, before a splash of water hit him straight in the face. Slowly, he turned and looked at Keith, who was quietly chuckling at him. 

“Oh it is so on, Mullet.”

——————

They spent hours just splashing each other with everything they got. Laughing throughout it all and as a result, getting seawater in their mouths. They almost splashed their moms, but before Keith unintentionally hit Krolia with a wave of water, she just turned with a dark expression. “Careful there, Keith,” she said, menacingly. 

With a nervous laugh, Keith slowly backed away and bumped into Lance, knocking them both over. Lance felt the wind get knocked out of him as Keith fell on top of him and accidentally pinned him in the water. 

Even though he was underwater, he started laughing, which made the salty water get into his mouth and caused him cough a little. Lance pushed Keith off of him and stood up abruptly, half-choking and half-giggling. He was having so much fun, and he almost didn’t notice when he saw a blue light in his peripheral vision.

Keith was staring at him, and Lance touched his hand to the skin under his eyelid. “Huh, that’s… huh,” he said dumbly. Keith cocked his head to the side.

“Does that happen often? I mean, outside of the full moonlight.”

“Sometimes… but not that often.”

“Could it be the ocean?”

“Maybe, but it’s happened outside of the ocean too.” He moved his hand from his marks to his chin, stroking it while thinking about when it usually occurred, other than when there was a full moon. 

Lance was startled out of his thoughts and felt a foreign brush of softness on his cheek. Keith was standing really close to him, and his hand was rubbing the marks under Lance’s scar. His breathing slowed and he opened his eyes wide, but he didn’t say anything. It was so sudden and out of character for Keith that it rendered Lance speechless. He couldn’t tell what emotion Keith was feeling by the expression on his face.

“Maybe it’s because you’re happy, and having fun,” he said, not moving his hand. His eyes looked intense.

Keith’s face was just inches from his own, and Lance was confused. It suddenly got intimate, and he didn’t know why and he didn’t know why Keith of all people was initiating the moment. It was… weird… 

Lance swallowed. “M-maybe…”

With that, Keith seemed to realize what he was doing. His eyes widened and his cheeks brightened. He quickly pulled away and the warmth and softness on Lance’s face was gone. 

Well, Lance could hardly call it soft, he could feel the rough calluses on Keith’s hands on his face. And yet, it still felt a bit soft.

Keith quickly moved away and started wading towards shore. Lance just slumped a bit and stared as he walked away, confused as ever and a little unsettled. The glow of his marks hadn’t gone away either. He briefly looked over at his mom and Krolia, but they didn’t seem to notice them at all. And his dad was still off collecting shells.

What… had just happened?

Why had it happened?

What did it mean?

He just blinked and stared, racking his brain to find something that could explain Keith’s actions and make himself feel less baffled.

Before Lance had more time to think about it, however, he felt something weird in his gut. At first he thought it was discomfort from what had just happened, but then he realized it was something else. He had an urge to turn around, so he did, but all he saw was the rest of the ocean.

The feeling came again, and Lance recognized it as some sort of pull inside him. Something drawing him in the direction of the horizon on the ocean. He looked over at the moms, but they were still entranced in their conversation. His dad was back at the towel now. Keith was too, and he was just sitting awkwardly in the sand. Just to make sure it was just him, he looked around at the other people around him, swimming, tanning, building sandcastles, etc. No one else seemed to be feeling out of the ordinary, although of course, Lance couldn’t tell what except himself was feeling.

He turned back towards the horizon and slowly started walking. When Lance was no longer able to walk any further on the sand without submerging entirely underwater, he began swimming. The pull in his gut urged him to dive under the water, so he took a deep breath. Down he went.

When Lance opened his eyes underwater, he expected it to sting, since ocean water was incredibly salty. However, his eyes didn’t feeling any different from before. His surroundings were just a little more blurrier than usual. Lance wasn’t that far from shore, so of course all he saw were broken shells, litter, some crabs, and little bits of sea plants.

And yet, he swore he could a shimmering figure in the distance underwater. 

He swam to the surface to take a breath and noticed that while he wasn’t super far from shore, he was farther than anyone else was. His marks were glowing brighter now. Lance wondered if maybe whatever was causing the urge to go in the specific direction was also causing the glowing.

Lance took another deep breath and dove back under the surface. The shimmering figure was still there, and the pull in his stomach got stronger as he got closer to it. 

He was pretty deep now, and probably deeper than he should be in just swim trunks. But he kept swimming. Further and further, towards the figure. And then, he heard a voice.

“Lance…” 

He tried to swim faster. The voice sounded muffled and indistinguishable, but he could hear what the words were

“Lance… you need to… I don’t want… ”

He strained his ears to hear what should have been impossible to hear underwater, but parts of the sentence were cut off. The voice was in some sort of English accent, in English, so it probably wasn’t anybody he knew in Cuba. He wondered if it was merfolk, since lots of aquatic, but anthropomorphic aliens had settled in Earth’s ocean. It was too close to shore, though, but Lance’s mind was just trying to come up with some sane reason for whatever was happening.

Lance’s lungs started screaming for air, but he was just so, so close. The voice calling his name was getting louder, and he began recognizing it a bit more. The owner of the voice was still indistinguishable, but it sounded familiar. 

The pull suddenly felt tight, and Lance started feeling nauseous. He looked up and saw the surface was pretty high above him. The shimmering was starting to fade, though, so he once again tried ignoring the feeling of needing to breathe and continued swimming deeper. Everything started to get fuzzy. Well, fuzzier than it already was.

He reached his hand out, as if he could catch the shimmer. The figure was more defined now, even in his blurry, underwater vision. It took on the shape of a woman, although it was very much just glowing a pinkish-white. The woman seemed to be facing away from him, and Lance opened his mouth to call out to her, before realizing that he was under water.

His vision started going dark, but what sent him over the edge of unconsciousness was when the figure turned around, still calling his name. 

“Lance…” she said, her voice clear, but echoey in his ears. 

His eyes widened, the sting of the water finally registering. 

He could never forget that voice. And he could never forget those features, even if they were in some sort of ethereal form.

It was Allura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know that much about Cuba (or the Spanish language, for that matter), which is why I'm trying to keep things pretty general in terms of geography or language. 
> 
> If/when I do need to get specific, and I mess up, please know that I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, and I do try to do at least a little bit of research!
> 
> Twitter: @cafri_jonique


	4. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance needs to get to the bottom of that mysterious light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a quick edit because I realized that my dumbass put the same chapter title as the previous chapter

When Lance opened his eyes again, he jolted up and started coughing up water. He tried to stand up, but he felt someone grab his arm to stop him. His vision was starting to clear out and he could see a bunch of people crowding around him, all talking quickly, the ocean behind them.

He turned around abruptly, eyeing the person who was holding his arm. It was his mother, who was gripping his wrist tightly, with a scared look on her face.

“What… the hell?” he said, looking at the people surrounding him. His dad was knelt next to him on the side opposite from his mom. Krolia was standing behind his dad, with her arms crossed, and Keith was standing in front of him, looking down. There was three other people he didn’t recognize, one of them wearing a lifeguard uniform, all with worried faces.

The lifeguard asked him questions in Spanish. Is he okay, does anywhere hurt, did he hit head. Can he count the number of fingers he was holding up, what day was it, etc etc. Lance answered all of them, his tone a bit confused, as he slowly stood up. His mom didn’t try to stop him this time.

Lance mumbled to himself in Spanish, then turned to the lifeguard and two strangers, ensuring to them that he was okay. When they finally left, he asked, “What happened?”

Mamá cleared her throat. “Lance… you started swimming out into the ocean. Your father and I didn’t think much of it since you were on a swim team back in school.”

“But then you went underwater. You came up for air once, but you went back under and didn’t come back up,” Papá continued gently, “Krolia was the first to notice and she went and got you just as the lifeguard got into the water.”

Lance scratched his head in confusion. “Krolia pulled me out?” he questioned, looking at her. She gave a small nod, and he finally noticed that even she had a worried expression on her face.

“What were you even doing all the way out there?” Keith asked him, shaking his head.

“I don’t- ” Lance started, but he quickly ended his sentence midway. His eyes widened as it came to him. He snapped his head in the direction of the ocean and began running towards it again, breathing heavily and quickly.

“Wh- Lance, stop!” Keith shouted.

He heard them all calling his name, but he ignored them, continuing to run back into the water. 

Allura…! Lance had seen Allura! Or, at the very least, some hologram of her. He needed to get back to it!

But before he could get deeper than his waist, rough hands grabbed him from behind. With a surprised squawk, he was dragged back. Lance knew it was his dad from the curses the person behind him muttered as he attempted to pull him back.

“ _¡Deja me ir, Papá!_ ” Lance screamed, struggling against his dad’s arms. He heard his mom yelling back at him in Spanish from the shore, as well as someone else, presumably Keith, stomping through the water to help his father restrain him.

He needed… he needed to get to Allura. Or to whatever it was that looked and sounded like her. 

If there was even a tiny chance that she was out there, somewhere…

And she was trying to tell him something.

“What’s wrong with him?!” he heard Krolia hell. 

“I don’t know what’s going on!”

“ _¡Oye cálmate, Lance!_ ”

“ _¡Ten cuidado, no le hagas daño!_ ” 

“ _¡No quiero lastimarlo pero el no va a regresar!_ ”

“Lance!”

" _Lance!_ "

He drowned the voices out as he continued his struggle, even when he felt another hand grab him and try to pull him back. He noticed that he had started hyperventilating, but that was yet another thing he decided to ignore in the moment.

Lance finally broke from of Papá’s and Keith’s grasp, but because of how tight it was, he stumbled forward and lost his balance. He tripped and fell forward, feeling his nose hit the water and subsequently the sand below. While the sand wasn’t necessarily hard, the force of Lance jerking forward and face planting the ocean had him feel a sickening crack.

He quickly jolted up out of the water and wiped his nose, seeing blood on his hands. But even though a waterfall of blood was likely running down his face, he ignored it in favor of continuing down the water. People were still shouting behind him.

But before he got much further, another set of hands grabbed him. They twirled Lance’s body around and he was met with Keith’s face in front of him. He started to turn back around, but Keith shook him. 

“Snap out of it, Lance!”

He didn’t even have time to struggle because he was met with a sharp sting in his cheek and his head whipping to the side as Keith slapped him. Lance stumbled to the side.

Lance fell into the water again, but this time, he was grounded enough to break his fall with his hand. He didn’t get up though, and just opted to sit there, blood still pouring down his face and dripping off his chin. He didn’t even reach up to pinch his nose. 

He was starting to feel dizzy, but he still didn’t move. His dad had reached him and was kneeling in the water, talking to him softly in Spanish. Lance didn’t register a word. Papá reached out a hand, but he didn’t take it. After what seemed like a long time, Keith was pulling him up roughly.

“Lance,” he said, eyes determined, “Let’s go home.”

Lance just looked at him, before slumping back down into the water. 

“Lance,” Keith said again, more firmly, “Get up. You can rest at home.”

Lance still didn’t move. His face hurt, from both the spot that Keith’s hand made contact and his nose. There was saltwater in his eyes that made them sting, and he was feeling really dizzy now from the blood loss. He just sat there in the water, just letting himself feel the pain and ache of his body.

He could still hear his dad talking quietly to him and… when did his mom get over here? Lance’s parents and Keith were around him, trying to coax him up, but he stayed where he was.

Finally, Lance felt hands grip under his legs and he was being hoisted up and carried by somebody. His vision was dancing now and he was probably close to passing out yet again from the intensity of the situation.

Also the blood loss. Definitely the blood loss. That’s was probably a major factor.

He didn’t even register who was carrying him just slumped against whoever it was. Thoughts were swirling around his head, but he was finally calmed down and didn’t make any attempt to struggle. Even in his incredibly dizzy state, Lance heard gentle and quiet voices around him.

He did realize when they had reached the car, because he whoever was carrying had set him down and wrapped a towel around him. The warmth was gone for a minute, before they were squeezing in next to him on the car seat. The rumble of the car started and he still heard quiet voices all around him. Lance finally reached a hand up to wipe his nose, but the flow was starting to die down anyways. He kept trying to think about Allura, about what he saw, about why he was pulled there, but his thoughts were getting sluggish. 

He cleared felt himself slumping against the warm body next to him, though. He noticed long black hair in his peripheral vision, and his last thought before he finally closed his eyes and let go was Keith.

——————

The rest of the day was a blur. When he woke up, Lance was in bed, still wearing his shorts, and it was dark outside. His nose and cheek hurt badly, but he paid no mind to that.

He slowly went to his bathroom and took a long shower. Afterwards, he still managed to continue his skin routine, although he almost considered skipping it.

When Lance finally dressed himself, left his room and walked to the dining room, he saw his parents, Krolia, and Keith all look at him as they sat at the dining table. There wasn’t any food, so Lance assumed that they were just talked about him.

He didn’t acknowledge them and instead, just walked to the door and left the house. Lance heard some of them inside scoot their chairs back to get up and go to him, but he held a hand up for them to just leave him alone. Then he continued outside.

Lance walked in the dark, cold air, feeling incredibly morbid and bleak. He reached the tree where he went to pay respect to Allura every day, and sat down under it, hearing the soft thud of his body on the grass. He took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and started smoking.

It was probably just a hallucination, which meant that Lance was now going crazy. Great. Just another fucking problem to add to his list of things that was wrong with him. 

He probably embarrassed his parents at the beach. And Keith, for that matter. God, he couldn’t believe that Krolia had to fucking stop him from drowning. And over what? Something that most likely wasn’t even there. He was pathetic. No wonder Allura never really loved him the same way. Or anyone, for that matter. 

He was useless, which was nothing new. He was always useless. Useless and a burden on everyone around him. Back at the Garrison, then during his time on Voltron, and now, with his family. So what did he expect? 

By the time he started to feel tired enough to sleep again, he had finished half the pack and his lungs were wheezing. But he ignored the feeling. When he finally dropped the last cigarette and stomped out the ember, he dropped his head into his hands and started crying.

It had been a long, long time since he cried from something other than physical pain, although it almost felt like he was physically ripping in half.

It wasn’t loud, but it was certainly heavy. Lance’s whole body shook as tears leaked through the fingers covering his face.

The world hated him, but who could blame it? He hated himself.

When he finally composed himself enough to not have tears actively falling down his face (although his eyes were still wet and his throat still had a lump in it), the sun was beginning to rise and the animals were starting to wake up.

Lance slowly wiped his eyes and sniffed. He started to get up, but immediately slumped back down. He didn’t really want to get up.

Instead, he leaned back against the tree and placed his hands in his lap. He looked up at the sky, eyes red and puffy, and watched the entire sunrise.

Lance was, surprisingly, reminded of a moment with Keith years ago, instead of Allura. It was back when he first started dating Allura, right before he introduced her to his family. He had sought Keith out for advice after getting the “father talk” from Coran. Afterwards, they had watched the last Earth sunset they’d ever see before traveling on the Atlas.

He couldn’t help but wonder if maybe that should have been Allura with him, watching the sunset. But he quickly shooed it out of his head, thinking about how it wasn’t necessarily an intimate moment, just a shared watch of the sunset.

Then he remembered what Keith said. And he got to thinking how usually, back then, the one person that would cheer him up was Keith. The one person that didn’t seem to be burdened by him back then. Someone who seemed to genuinely trust Lance.

He shook his head. Whatever Keith might’ve thought back then, he definitely didn’t think now, especially not after the day before. 

Lance found himself slowly dozing off, thinking about both Allura and Keith. Allura, his once-lover, and Keith, his once-leader.

When he finally fell asleep, the early morning sunlight warming him up from the cold, bitter night, he felt a twinge of guilt for thinking about anyone other than Allura on her grave.

——————

Lance woke up slowly and lazily. It was high noon, and the horses and cows were out, frolicking the fields and arenas. He didn’t get up, just stretched and barked in the sun before relaxing back against the tree.

“How are you feeling?”

“Gah!” Lance said a little too loudly, flinching at the voice that startled him. He looked in the direction of it, and saw Keith leaning against the tree next to him.

“Jeez, were you watching me sleep?” he sighed, going limp on the tree again.

Keith shrugged. “Only for like, five minutes.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I wanted to let you sleep.”

“Why? If something needed to get done, I’d have understood.”

Keith sighed. “Lance, our parents and I can handle some chores. The question is though, is are you okay?”

Lance looked away. “I’m never okay, Keith.”

He rolled his eyes in response. “Okay, but are you normal not okay right now?”

“No.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know.”

There was a long silence. Lance could feel his eyes getting watery again, but he didn’t want Keith to notice. Instead of saying something, or even wiping his eyes, he just sniffed.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, so he finally looked back up at Keith. He had a worried look on his face, and his violet eyes were filled with an emotion Lance couldn’t recognize.

“Please don’t cry.”

Lance quickly turned away and swiped a hand across his nose. “I’m not crying,” he said, but his hoarse voice said otherwise. He pushed Keith’s hand off his shoulder and stood up, brushing himself off.

“I’m fine, I’ll go be productive.”

“Lance…”

“I’m fine, seriously.”

“Lance."

Keith said his name harshly that last time, 

“Lance, you’re clearly not okay. Please, just… open up to me. Tell me what’s wrong, tell me how you’re feeling.”

Lance stared at Keith, fearing that if he spoke, he’d burst into tears again. And while it was bad enough when he was alone, it would be a million times worse in front of Keith.

“I take back what I said. If you need to cry, just let it out.”

Lance’s eyelids twitched, and he wanted to badly to let the dam break, but he just couldn’t. Not here. Not after he had literally just spent the night bawling his eyes out.

When Keith realized he wasn’t gonna give in, he sighed. “Can you at least tell me why you swam out that far into the ocean?”

“It’s stupid.”

“It’s not.”

“I was probably just seeing things.”

“That’s not true.”

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

Keith was stubbornly resistant to his pushes, and for a split second, Lance felt pissed off. Why couldn’t Keith just leave him alone? Save himself the trouble of dealing with someone else’s problems. Focus on more important things.

And yet, with the intense look Keith was giving him, he felt himself begin to cave. 

“I felt a pull.”

“A what?”

“A pull in my gut, so to say. It just told me that I had to go in a specific direction, so I started swimming that way. It brought me under the surface, and I saw… I saw…”

Fuck. He was tearing up now, more so than before. The familiar lump in his throat was getting bigger. But still, Lance refused to let himself cry with Keith standing next to him. He covered his mouth and coughed, blinking a few times.

He felt the hand on his shoulder move to his back, so turned back to Keith.

“I saw Allura.”

Silence.

“… What?”

“I swear I saw Allura. Or-or some form of her. It was white and glowing, so maybe it wasn’t exactly her, but it was her voice and her face and everything…”

“Are you… sure?”

“Yes! I’d never forget anything about her!”

“What if it was like… your life flashing before your eyes or something?”

Lance threw his hands up in frustration.

“See?! I told you that you wouldn’t believe me!”

“I’m just saying…”

“What? What are you 'just' saying, Keith!”

“Well, I just think that there might be a logical explanation for this. Like maybe it was something else you saw.”

“This is EXACTLY why I didn’t want to talk to you about this.”

“Wait- I didn’t mean- ”

“Of course you didn’t mean. Nobody ever does.”

“Lance- ”

He shoved Keith’s hand off his back sharply, fuming. His entire body was suddenly filled with an intense rage and while he knew it wasn’t Keith’s fault, it blasted out on him.

“I already know what everyone really thinks, and I don’t need your fucking pity.”

“That’s not what- ”

“Don’t fucking say that’s not what’s actually happening. I’m just a big fucking disappointment. Everyone around me as moved on with their lives, and I still haven’t. Now I’m literally going fucking crazy, so the one thing I totally need right now is pity.”

Lance spat out that last word with all the spite he could muster.

“Poor old Lancey-Lance, gone crazy over a girl who, just like everyone else, pitied him. Needs to literally be slapped in the fucking face to snap him out of his hallucinations and delusions.”

“I didn’t WANT to hit you, you were just getting hysterical. I- I couldn't think of a better solution at the moment.”

Lance turned around and glared at Keith, pointing to the giant bruise now on his face from the day before.

“Look at my FUCKING face, Keith! Look what you FUCKING did to me!”

He clenched his fists and shook, now from anger instead of his previous sorrow. Keith instinctively held his hands up, anticipating a punch or something.

But it never came. Lance shook for a few more moments before he gave a loud scowl and stormed away.

“Lance, wait- ” Keith started, but Lance didn’t give him the chance to finish and just ignored him. 

The world hated him, yes. And he hated the world.

——————

The good news was, Lance was extremely productive the rest of the week. He busied himself with farm chores, way more than he usually did. He groomed every horse, picked every weed he could find, harvested every bit of ripe fruit, vegetable, or root available. The only time he took a break was to get something to eat because he ever since his blow-up at Keith, he had skipped breakfast and just went straight to work. Even then, he didn’t bother his parents for lunch or dinner, just put his somewhat-okay cooking skills to use and made himself the best damn sandwiches he’d ever made in his life.

Another piece of good news: He wasn’t sad anymore.

The bad news was, he was mad the entire time. 

Lance was filled with a burning anger that consumed him. He was productive, yes, but his mood was soured. He refused to talk to Keith, and only made short conversation with his parents and Krolia. Even when Luis, Lisa, Nadia, and Sylvio finally got back home from vacation, he was barely paid them any mind. They gave him worried glances, and several times, Keith had tried to talk to him. But Lance would always just hold up his hand and stop him from saying another word.

The bruise on his cheek stayed there. His nose stopped being sore after a day or so, but the damn bruise was literally like a thorn in his side.

He probably went through at least 13 packs of cigarettes in the four days it took for him to finally burn out. 

When it happened, he was carrying hay into the barn for Kaltenecker and the other cows. It was the early evening and Lance could start to see some of the stars.

Keith was on his way out and quickly looked down, probably not wanting to anger Lance further. 

By this point, though, Lance’s fury was dying down and he knew that he wasn’t really mad at Keith, just mad at the world and himself.

He didn’t even get one small step into the barn before he collapsed.

Apparently, even as strong and used to farm work as he was, Lance’s body couldn’t handle working 18-20 hours a day while barely eating anything. It hit him all at once. How much his limbs ached. How sore he was. How tired and hungry he was. And that stupid bruise. It seemed to throb even more than usual.

His knees buckled, and he fell back with a surprised yelp, dropping the hay all over himself. Lance couldn’t get back up and in that moment, he didn’t want to.

Keith, of course, rushed over to help him.

“Are you okay?!” he gasped, quickly kneeling beside Lance.

Lance just blew a strand of his hair out of his face. The hay was itchy.

“Look, I know you don’t want to talk to me, but seriously, you’re gonna kill yourself!”

He took a long time to answer. All he did was stare up at Keith’s once-again worried face. Those intense violet eyes.

“Just leave me here, Keith.”

“What?”

“Just leave me here. Let me just starve to death on the ground right now. Or maybe I’ll die of dehydration first. Who knows.”

Keith spluttered. “Lance, don’t talk like that!”

Lance gave a weak shrug.

“Just put me out of my misery. And everyone else’s, while you’re at it.”

“What does that mean?!”

“It means, Keith, that I’m just a burden to everyone around me. So might as well just do the world a favor and leave me here.”

In response to that, Keith pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows.

“C’mon, Lance…”

“I don’t want to argue about this.”

“There’s nothing to argue about here! You can’t seriously expect me to just leave you lying here!”

Lance internally groaned. He was just so tired. Not necessarily in a sleepy kind of way, though.

“When I’m out of my misery, I’ll finally be at peace. And maybe I’ll be with Allura.”

“Seriously, don’t talk like that…”

“I’m being serious here too. I’m done with everything, so just leave me and let me rot on the ground.”

His voice sounded emotionless, even to him. It’s how he felt, honestly. 

There was no more sadness.

No more anger.

Just a sense of… finality. And suffering.

It was both better and worse than any other episode he’d ever had. 

Worse, because he was now physically hurting rather than just mentally. Better, because now he outwardly matched what was going on in his head.

“Lance, I am not leaving you here. Your parents and siblings would kill me, first of all, but also, I care about you. So no, I’m not just gonna let you rot away here.”

Lance didn’t even have the will or energy to give back a retort anymore. He just looked up at the ceiling to the barn.

“I’m sorry for everything, Keith. I was always an asshole to you.”

Keith didn’t say anything, so he continued.

“I’m sorry that you were dragged here to the pit of depression that is wherever I am.”

He didn’t even care what he was saying anymore. He was done. Done with everything. Done with life. If he died right here, he wouldn’t care.

“I’m sorry to everyone, really. My family, especially my parents and Luis, who’ve had to deal with my bullshit for the past five years.”

“Lance…”

“And to Pidge and Hunk. I know I was always annoying, and I’m really sorry for that. Shiro, too. I let him down back during that stupid clone debacle.”

“That was so long ago, Lance, and even if it was recent, it wasn’t your fault.”

“I hope Allura knows I’m sorry too. For not being a better boyfriend.”

Keith fell silent.

“Everyone around me deserves so much better than… well, me. Tell everyone that, when I finally starve down here.”

He paused.

“Well, except for Duardo. He can go suck a fat dick.”

“Who the fuck is Duardo?”

“Some asshole we always see at the farmer’s market. He thinks his rotten guavas are better than ours. It doesn’t matter. He’s wrong.”

Keith gave a small snort that he clearly tried to hold back. Lance gave a weak smile, knowing he at least got Keith to laugh.

“Go out of the barn right now, if you don’t believe me, and pick a fucking guava, and tell me if some punk city-dude’s indoor-plant fruit is better.”

Keith restrained himself from laughing this time, but Lance knew he was smiling.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement, and suddenly he was being picked up again.

“Well, if you aren’t getting up, I’m carrying you.”

“It’s not like I could’ve gotten up even if I wanted to.”

“Maybe not.”

The warmth was there again. He didn’t know why, but it felt nice. Comforting, even.

Lance took a long look at Keith. 

He was… admittedly not bad looking.

He seemed to take better care of his hair than he did back when they were a part of Voltron. It looked soft and velvety, and it was all wrapped up nicely in a low ponytail.

His eyes were violet, yeah, but they also had a hint of gray in them, giving them a sort of dangerous beauty Lance hadn’t noticed before.

And while Lance couldn’t exactly get a good look of Keith’s body from the position he was being held in, he could definitely feel the muscles rippling on his arms. 

Lance was pretty sure he was taller than Keith, but probably not by much, considering the elegant height Keith was at. Or maybe it was just because he was being carried.

And he was physically and mentally exhausted.

Yeah, that’s probably just it. 

With that last thought, Lance relaxed against Keith’s arm and stared aimlessly at the sky.

“Hey Keith.”

“Hm?”

“I remember the bonding moment.”

Keith stopped. “You what?”

“Back when I got blown up on Arus, that first time Sendak attacked the Castle of Lions. And you helped me up, and, as you put it, ‘cradled me in your arms.’”

“I… uh… wow.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. Just thought you should know that I was just being an ass back then.”

When they finally got to the house, no one was home. Lance assumed they all went for dinner in town, although if that was so, he didn’t know why Keith was still at the farm.

Keith continued to carry him all the way to his room, before entering and setting Lance down on his bed. He grabbed a blanket that was off to the side and put it on top of him. Lance was grateful.

“I’ll go get you something to you, you rest here,” Keith said, making his way towards the door.

“Wait,” Lance called, “Stay here.”

Keith turned from where he was at the doorway. “Hm?”

“Please… stay here. I don’t want to be alone right now.”

Keith gave him a slow nod and closed the door, leaning back against it. “I guess I’ll just… stay here until you fall asleep I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They looked at each other for a while, though, neither of them moving. Keith, staying at the door and staring at Lance and Lance, staring back, not falling asleep.

After much silence, Lance spoke.

“You can sit down on the bed, you know.”

“Wh- I can?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with it. I mean, is just sitting.”

“Do you want me to, though?”

Lance shrugged. “I dunno what I want, Keith, so don’t ask me.”

Keith paused. A slew of emotions crossed his face, and it looked like he was arguing with himself. Lance almost snorted aloud.

Finally, Keith sighed and walked over, sitting at the edge of the bed.

“You can lay down too. It’s a big bed.”

“Oh, okay.”

But instead of doing that, Keith scooted back to where the headrest was and leaned against it in his sitting position.

Lance gave up. He was just trying to make Keith be comfortable, but it was obvious that he was probably annoying him.

“You have a guitar?”

Lance was jolted out of his thoughts. 

“Yeah. Haven’t played in months, though.”

“Hm. Could I…?”

Lance turned around under the blanket. “You can play?” he asked, his tone laced with disbelief. Keith huffed.

“Of course I can! Why else would I ask?”

“I don’t know. Go ahead, I don’t mind if you touch it.”

He heard Keith shuffling around the room before he felt him settle back onto the bed, in the same spot he was before.

The room was filled with a soft, calming sound as Keith began plucking and strumming strings on the guitar. It was nice, and something he definitely did not expect from Keith. Lance could also make out a quiet humming, and he thought that it too sounded nice. 

It was making him sleepy, at the very least. His aching body was relishing in the comfort of the soft bed and the relaxing sound of Keith playing the guitar. 

He kept his eyes on Keith as they slowly started closing. He still felt the warmth coming from his body, even though he wasn’t pressed up against him.

Lance was out in a couple of minutes.

But before he was completely asleep, he distantly heard the music stop for a second. Lance felt a gentle touch on the cheek with his bruise. And for once in the entire week he had that bruise, it didn’t sting.

——————

When he woke up to use the bathroom, it was the middle of the night. And Keith was still on his bed. Still in the same position he was sitting in when Lance had drifted off, guitar still in his lap. Although he was pretty obviously asleep now.

Lance quickly finished in the restroom and crawled back onto the mattress.

He looked at Keith’s sleeping figure for a few minutes before closing his own eyes again.

He didn’t know why, but he was glad Keith had stayed. 

——————

The days leading up to the end of Keith and Krolia’s short vacation were calm. 

Lance appreciated that.

He realized that while maybe he did want to do more with his life, he really did like the calm and wholesome life working on a farm gave him. 

Besides, he still looked great, so it’s not like that changed. In fact, he probably started getting MORE good looking since starting the farm. He was taller, he had bigger muscles and a much more toned body, and of course, nice skin. Lance never stopped his skin routine, just perfected it.

And added a little something that reminded him of Allura.

So going back to that after the unpleasant week he had was refreshing. 

He hadn’t gone to the beach since the incident, though. Not even to ride the horses. However, the day before Keith and Krolia had to leave, Lance insisted they have a barbeque. Everyone was worried about him, but he didn’t want to hear it.

He was serious when he said he was tired of everyone feeling sorry for him.

The event still haunted him, but he was almost certain at this point that it really was just a hallucination. Maybe someone was pulling jokes, although if it was, it definitely wasn’t a very funny one. 

Allura was…

Allura…

Allura was gone. 

Lance still wasn’t over it, and that little incident definitely proved it. 

But… despite how he still felt about Allura… and despite how he just couldn’t move on… he knew he had to keep himself grounded in reality.

And reality was that… Allura wasn’t here anymore.

Which means that whatever the hell Lance had seen was not her. And therefore, nothing worth investigating. 

No reason to be nervous of the beach now. 

Of course, he still was. When everyone agreed on a spot to sit at on the sand, they all laid their towels out.

Nadia and Sylvio had brought some of their friends along, whose parents had also come as well, so there were more people than there usually would have been. 

Lance didn’t feel like he was ready to get into the water again, so he relaxed on the beach towel and basked in the sun. The kids were running around him, having an absolute blast. Luis and Lisa were talking to Krolia. His parents were eating some of the food. And Keith… well, honestly, Lance wasn't looking at Keith so he didn’t know what he was up to.

It wasn’t too hot out, but it was definitely warm. Lance’s second favorite type of weather. And his number one favorite weather for the beach. 

He eventually sat up and stretched, his bones feeling nice from the sunlight. Scanning the beach, his eyes finally spotted on Keith. 

Keith was standing on the part where the waves met the sand, so his feet were basically just in the wet, muddy part. He was turned away, so Lance couldn’t see his expression, but he looked relaxed from where Lance was sitting. His ponytail was flowing in the wind.

Lance stood up and walked over to Keith, although he stopped when he was just far enough so he was out of the way of where the waves reached. Keith turned around.

“Oh, hey.”

“Hey, man. Enjoying the beach?”

“Definitely. You?”

Lance shrugged. “I guess. I feel a little nervous, but otherwise, it’s going well.”

“That’s good.”

They looked at each other for a while. Lance flashed nervous smile and Keith shuffled his feet in the water. 

“I know this trip wasn’t exactly… the best for you, but… will you be coming again?”

Keith immediately nodded. “Of course I will, Lance. I’ll come back as much as you want me to.”

“That’s good.”

Quiet again. For a few minutes. The wind was still blowing Keith’s hair, and strands of Lance’s own hair were brushing against his face. Neither of them said anything for a while. Those violet eyes were sparkling, the reflection of the water making the light in them dance.

They both snapped out of it when they heard Mamá call from somewhere behind them.

“Lance! Keith! Come eat!”

Lance was the first to break eye contact and he turned around, looking back at his family. “ _¡Ahorita llegamos!_ ” he said. He looked back at Keith and motioned for him to follow. “Let’s get something to eat.”

Keith nodded slowly, and stepped out of the muddy sand. 

Food was good. Everyone had interesting conversations, and the kids told everyone stories of what happened on their vacation. Sylvio’s friend, Miguel, and Miguel’s family had apparently travelled to Switzerland, and brought back chocolate for everyone. It was an added delight to the get together.

After everyone ate their fill, they resumed their activities on the beach. Lance helped the kids make a sandcastle. It was actually pretty terrible, but the kids enjoyed it and seemed to be proud, so Lance didn’t say anything. He just grinned and praised them.

By the time the sun was setting, the kids were all tired out and the adults were all packing up. Lance paused from helping to sit at the edge of the shore and watch the sun disappear under the horizon. 

The sky was painted an orangish-red, clouds looking like pink cotton candy. The waves had calmed down significantly, and most of the other visitors on the beach had left. The slow sound of the waves and the wind was a nice one.

He felt sand rustle beside him, so he turned to look at who it was.

Lance honestly expected Keith to be the one sitting next to him, but it was actually Luis instead. 

“ _Ey, Luis_ ,” Lance greeted as he sat down.  
{Hey, Luis}

“ _Ey. ¿Te divertiste hoy_?”  
{Hey. Did you have fun today?}

“ _Mhm, me relaja mucho._ ”  
{Mhm, it was very relaxing.}

“ _Keith es muy sympatico y lo voy a extrañar._ ”  
{Keith is a fun guy. I’m gonna miss him.}

“ _No diría que es simpático pero me agrada estar con el._ ”  
{I wouldn’t say he’s fun, but he’s nice to be around.}

They both gave a sigh and chuckle. Lance had so many memories with Luis at lots of beaches. Luis was, after all, the person who taught Lance how to swim. He was a good big brother, and Lance always appreciated having him around.

Luis was kind of like an older, blood-related version of Hunk, actually. A big teddy bear who cared deeply about those around him. And someone who’d do his best to put anyone at ease.

Yeah, he was just like Hunk. 

Only difference was, Hunk better understood Lance’s pain.

No. He shouldn’t think about that right now.

Happy thoughts, Lance, happy thought.

“ _¿Y tu? ¿Cómo estaba la playa?_ ”  
{What about you? How was the beach for you today?}

“ _¿Me divertí, pero como soy padre tuve que cuidar los niños y estoy bien cansado._ ”  
{Me? I had fun. The kids can be exhausting sometimes, but that’s just part of being a parent.}

“ _Yo no sabría, no tengo nada de experiencia siendo padre._ ”  
{I guess so, although it’s not like I have any experience as a parent.}

“ _Ya se, pero eres un buen tío. Nadia y Sylvio te aman. Y no es como Marco o Rachel me han dicho lo que creen que Elisa, Héctor y Samantha piensan, pero estoy seguro que eres el tío favorito._ ”  
{You still make a pretty cool uncle. Nadia and Sylvio love you. And while it’s not like Marco or Rachel have said anything to me personally about what Elisa, Hector, and Samantha think, I’m pretty sure you’re the favorite uncle.}

“ _Nada mas dices eso._ ”  
{You’re just saying that.}

“ _Te hablo en serio._ ”  
{I’m serious.}

Lance chuckled. He honestly had no idea he was so popular among his nieces and nephews. Even if he wasn’t, though, he’d still adore them anyways.

Someone from behind called Luis over, so he gave Lance’s back a pat.

“ _Te hablo después hermano._ ”  
{I’ll talk to you later, brother.}

“ _Bueno pues._ ”  
{Yeah, alright.}

Lance watched as he moved back to the chaos of everyone cleaning up. Sighing, he turned back towards the ocean. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, but it was still there, and the sky around it was still red.

When it finally sunk for the day, Lance slowly stood up and stretched. He walked back to help out with what was left.

After putting the last of the leftovers into the trunk, and helping the parents carry some to the now-sleeping kids to the car, Lance got into his own family’s car. Luis and Lisa, as well as the kids, of course, were already seated inside. Keith was getting into the car around the same time that he himself was. His parents shortly followed and with that, they were all off on the road back home.

He was once again squeezed in the back next to Keith, who was sandwiched between Lance and Krolia. Keith looked sleepy and Krolia was just looking at the sights outside of the window. He could tell Keith was trying to stay awake, probably so he didn’t have to be woken up to get into bed, but it was a losing battle.

Lance chuckled and nudged Keith’s arm. “Have fun today?”

Keith half-nodded in response. 

“Mhm.”

“Like the food?”

“Mmmhm.”

“Enjoy the weather?”

“Mm.”

“Want me to shut up so you can sleep?”

At that point, Keith didn’t even say anything, just gave a small jerk of his head in what was probably supposed to be a nod. Then he leaned against Krolia’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Lance saw Krolia look down at Keith and give a small smile. She leaned her head on top of his. The whole picture looked really cute. 

Lance gave a small sigh before looking back out of his own window. It looked like they had left the beach just in time- the clouds started thundering, and he had no doubt that it was probably gonna rain in a few hours.

He kept his eyes on the sky the entire ride home.

——————

Right before Keith left early in the morning, he woke Lance up to say goodbye.

Lance had been having a really nice dream about being on the beach, so at first he was a little pissed to be woken up from it. However, once he realized that it was Keith who was waking him up and that Keith was just about to leave for the airport, his annoyance vanished and he quickly grabbed a robe and some slippers to see him out.

It was pouring outside, so Lance didn’t go beyond the front door of the house, but luckily, Keith didn’t just keep going. 

“Have fun saving the world, Kogane. I’ll be here, milking Kaltenecker.”

“I don’t save the world, Lance.”

“Details, details. The point is, you save someone’s world everyday with the work you do.”

“I… never really thought about it that way.”

“You should start thinking about it that way.”

“Whatever you say, Lance.”

Lance chuckled. “Alright, alright, I won’t hold you here. It’s a long drive to the airport, and an even longer drive when it’s raining.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ll visit again, right?”

“I said I would.”

“Just checking to see if you still meant it.”

“I always mean when I say. Well, most of the time anyways.”

“I’m just making sure that this is not one of those rare times where you don’t mean what you say.”

Keith rolled his eyes. 

“Say hi to Komso for me.”

Keith gave a smile. “Will do. “I’ll see you again sometime soon.”

Lance returned the smile. “Right.”

They shook hands, and Keith grabbed his bag. Lance watched as he made his way through the muddy path and to the car, Krolia already seated inside. Even though he was some distance away from the car and it was raining,, he still saw Krolia’s wave to him. He gave a small wave back and stayed out there on the porch as the car started up and began driving. 

He continued watching until he couldn’t see the car anymore.

——————

It still rained and poured weeks after Keith’s second visit ended. Lance enjoyed the rain since it reminded him of something that was so Earth. Something he missed back when he was in space, piloting one of the lions. Whenever it rained during the night, Lance let himself drift off to the sound of the drops pattering on the roof and windows.

Rain was also good for the crops. And it made everyone’s life on the farm easier, since they didn’t have to go out and manually water everything, or turn on the sprinklers.

However, rain was the last thing on Lance’s mind when he was woken up by a blue glow around midnight, two and a half weeks after Keith had left.

When he jolted awake, he knew that the glowing was from his cheeks. His first reaction was to pay no mind to it and just go back to bed. It was probably just a full moon or something. 

But he couldn’t fall back asleep. And as time passed by, Lance felt a familiar feeling in his gut. Another pull.

It was happening again.

Lance tried ignoring it, but after an hour, he realized that it wasn’t going away.

He quietly got dressed, went to the bathroom, and entered the kitchen. He grabbed the keys to the car and put on his rain jacket. When he reached the car, the pull started throbbing.

Lance drove in the direction the feeling in his gut pulled him. As expected, it brought him back to the beach. There was no one there, but it was also the middle of the night and it was raining cats and dogs. The pull led him out of his car and right to the shoreline. 

But he stopped right there. He didn’t want the incident that happened before to repeat itself. He paced back and forth along the wet sand, thinking how he was gonna go about this. Then it came to him.

He had something at home that could allow him to stay underwater for a lengthy period of time.

With that, Lance quickly jumped back into the car and drove back home. He usually would have been annoyed that he had to go back and forth in the rain, but right now, his body buzzed with energy.

The throbbing got worse the farther he got from the beach, as if it was trying to keep him from leaving. He just grit his teeth and gripped the wheel tightly.

When he arrived home, he slowly made his way to the special room they set aside in the house for trophies earned by the family. Whether it be for soccer, swimming, baking, etc, if it was earned by the family, it was set up in this room.

It was also the room Lance had put his old paladin things, including the bayards.

He shuffled around his stuff, looking for the exact thing he was trying to find.

When he found it, he silently exited the house and went back to the car.

Arriving at the beach for the second time that night, Lance left his rain jacket and shoes in the car. When he got to the edge of the shore, he took off his shirt. The cold rain hit his skin like ice, and he shivered. But the feel of the pull was enough to have him ignore and suppress it.

Lance looked out at the sea. The waves were rough and choppy, ripping and crashing against each other. The sky was pitch black, and he could see cracks of lightning occasionally pitch across the sky.

Oh boy. If there was lightning, then he had the possibility of getting electrocuted if he went into the water. Especially since it was ocean water, which was filled with salt.

Lance took a deep breath. The pull in his gut had lessened to a slow, but energetic feel.

He slowly put on the helmet to his paladin armor. It had been years since he wore it, but it still fit him perfectly. Of course, it was also just the helmet.

Lance slowly stepped into the water. Freezing, as he expected. But he didn’t care

He kept wading in further and further until he could no longer touch the sandy ground. He looked up into the sky one last time. 

Allura, he thought, if it really is you, I’m coming.

Lance dove under the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the grammar for the Spanish is bad! I did ask my friend, who was raised speaking Spanish, to help translate, but if something is wrong, I apologize! The only languages I can speak are English and a tiny bit of French, so I really have no idea how to write it and I didn't want to just throw it into Google Translate.
> 
> Anywho, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Twitter: @cafri_jonique


	5. Red and Black and Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has some revelations. And some worries.

Keith was absolutely smitten with Lance. That was a fact.

In only the short time he first visited Lance’s farm, the old flame had begun igniting again. And in the two weeks he visited him for a second time, that flame had become a full-blown bonfire. Hence why he went over his mandated vacation hours.

Acxa had given him an earful when he finally did return back to Daibazaal, although Krolia put her at ease about it. Keith still had his suspicions about Krolia and Kolivan, but he filed it away for the time being. Besides, most of his thoughts were filled with Lance anyways.

When Lance had that nervous breakdown, Keith couldn’t think of any other way to make him less hysterical other than giving him a smack. He felt really bad and guilty afterwards, especially since a large bruise formed on Lance’s cheek, and it stayed the rest of Keith’s time on the farm. And when he tried to talk to him about why he went out and almost drowned himself, Lance mentioned seeing Allura. Keith had made the assumption that Lance was talking about seeing his life flash before his eyes, but Lance was adamant that it was something else. Because Keith didn’t seem to believe him, he was mad at Keith for a few days and just overall really angry. 

But after Lance had calmed down, he didn’t seem to resent Keith for the bruise. Of course Keith still felt guilty, but he was incredibly relieved that Lance wasn’t mad at him.

And he promised Lance he’d go back. It was an easy promise to make.

——————

When Keith got back to the Blades, his unit was sent on a mission four days later, over on the planet Cattalum. Keith had never been to it before, but Acxa had already warned him about how it was an extremely hot and dry planet, made up of a lot of volcanic rock. In fact, most of the cities were located inside of volcanoes. The Cattalese were supposedly similar to the Balmerans in appearance, although they were definitely a different species. They also took on more of a reptilian look.

When his unit finally touched down on Cattalum, Keith had to wipe his face as the moment he stepped out, sweat already began dripping down his face. When he looked as his teammates, they seemed to have the same feeling. Even Ezor was sweating, and it took a really high amount of heat to bother her. Kosmo wasn’t faring much better either, and he continuously panted as they got off of the air conditioned ship. 

They were tasked with bringing food and medical supplies to a city called Lurbis. Apparently, the volcano they were located in was dormant, and it was severely affecting the economy of Lurbis. The Cattalese were dependant on the volcanoes that their cities were built in, so if it went dormant or extinct, they suffered as a result.

When Keith and his unit arrived at the city entrance at the bottom of the volcano, they were greeted hastily by Lurbis’ council, although they seemed wary of Kosmo.

“Thank you, thank you for coming!” The shortest one said, shaking Zethrid’s hand enthusiastically. Zethrid looked startled at being the first one greeted and awkwardly said, “Uh, yeah, no problem.” 

The other members of the council did the same to Keith, Acxa, and Ezor.

After the council hurriedly directed the four to the districts in most need, Acxa and Keith worked to set up an area to form a line and hand out food while Ezor and Zethrid went back to the ship to unload the crates of supplies, with the help of Kosmo.

Keith and Acxa made pretty good progress considering the limited time they had before citizens would be lining up, so they started chatting while they waited for Ezor and Zethrid to be completely finished. Kosmo would occasionally pop in with the two, who always had their hands full of crates. After they teleported back to the ship, Keith and Acxa would work to set up the supplies.

“There’s an open market in the center of the town, we should check it out after we’re done with the districts,” Acxa said, “The Cattalese have really nice food, too.”

“When’s the last time you’ve been here?” Keith said, leaning against a table they set up.

“I’m not sure. It’s been several deca-phoebs, though.”

“This place is too hot for my liking.”

“Keith, this place is too hot for anyone except the inhabitants’ liking. That’s why they settled here.”

“Fair point.”

“You like to draw, right? They have really nice art supplies.”

“Really? Like what?”

“A variety of different paints, made using the lava of the volcanoes here.”

“Uh… isn’t that dangerous? I don’t want my canvases to burn. Not to mention, yknow, me.”

“Well, they mix it with other properties that neutralize the burning.”

“Huh. That’s pretty cool. What other kind of art supplies do they have?”

“They have beautifully carved writing utensils. I suppose those aren’t made out of anything special and they do, obviously, wear down after quite a lot of use, but they certainly are pretty.”

“You know a lot about the stuff they sell here.”

“They also make excellent teas. I’ll have to get some for Ronnie and I.”

“Oh yeah, how’s Veronica?”

Acxa huffed. “She came down with the Earth flu.”

Keith gave her a sympathetic look. “I hope she feels better soon. I had the flu a few times and it was… not fun.”

“I spent almost the entirety of my break taking care of her. I don’t particularly mind taking care of her, it just worries me to see her so miserable.”

“Well, it should be over soon if it lasted that long.”

“Mm, yes. Speaking of Veronica… how is Lance?”

“Lance is fine, I guess.”

“You don’t sound very confident about that.”

“Yeah well… during my visit, stuff… happened. I don’t know if he wants me to tell people about it, though.”

“I see.”

“Yeah.”

An awkward silence filled the space between them, before Acxa spoke up again.

“You should get him something here.”

“What? Why?”

“They have good courting gifts here.”

“Courting gifts?”

Acxa cocked her head in confusion for a moment, before realization came across her face. “Sometimes I forget that you weren’t raised among other Galra.”

“Wha- What does that mean? You weren’t really raised as a normal Galra child either.”

“Yes, but I did get some education. In any case, a courting gift is something Galra present to a potential mate.”

Keith turned red and coughed. “Mate?”

“You know, someone that you copu- ”

“ _I know what a mate is, Acxa._ ”

“Right, so you understand. In probably the last hundreds of deca-phoebs however, the courting gift has extended to not just potential mates but instead, potential lovers. I remember the courting gift I gave to Veronica. It was a bracelet I made from pressed earth flowers.”

“And this applies to me… how?”

Acxa gave him a baffled look, as if it was obvious. “You like Lance, right?”

“Yes, but not in that way!” Keith’s face was a tomato now.

“What? But didn’t Lance give you a courting gift?”

“Lance isn’t Galra! And besides, it wasn’t like that! He just gave me back my old bayard!”

“Wasn’t it his bayard too?”

Keith huffed and crossed his arms. “It wasn’t a ‘courting gift’, and I don’t feel that way about him! Maybe I did once, but I don’t anymore!”

Acxa gave him a skeptical look, but before she could continue, Ezor and Zethrid had arrived back at their spot. Thank God for Keith, who was pretty sure he’d burst from the blood flooding to his face.

“Come on, Zethrid, I’m not weak!”

“I’m not saying you are, but I just think that since I’m able to carry more at a time, I can give you a break.”

Of course they were arguing. They never argued because they were mad at each other, but rather, they argued because they always tried to one-up each other for being the better girlfriend. A little personal challenge between them. It was pretty amusing to watch. Although, Kosmo didn’t seem all too happy, probably fed up with them.

“Why aren’t you and Veronica that entertaining?” Keith teased Acxa.

She shrugged. “I guess we don’t have much to prove to each other. We already know that we’re lifelong partners, so as long as we respect each other and communicate, we don’t have to argue every second of the day like Ezor and Zethrid.”

Keith shrugged. He looked back over to where Ezor and Zethrid were still bickering. 

“Okay, you two, people will be lining up here in a few minutes, can you pause the argument and bring the crates over here?”

They immediately stopped and continued walking towards the tables they had set up. Keith and Acxa helped them empty the supplies from the boxes and place them on the tables, where they were going to hand out everything.

Once the Cattalese in the district arrived, Acxa had instructed the citizens how the supplies were going to be handed out, and who got priority for certain items.

They finished that district in just under two hours and continued on until they were completely finished with all of the districts of Lurbis. By then, Keith had sweat so much that he was certain he’d be wringing out puddles from his Blade suit when he got back to Daibazaal. The rest of his unit didn’t look much better.

When they were finally done packing everything up, they went down to the market, as Acxa wanted to, to see if there was anything interesting to buy. Kosmo, unfortunately, had to be left on the ship since the Cattalese seemed to be very scared of him and Keith didn’t want them to go into a panic. 

Keith was immediately drawn to a pair of leather fingerless gloves that looked just like his own, except they had a bit of a red tint to them. Upon asking the merchant selling them, he found out that they were made out of a livestock similar to a cow that was unique to Cattalum. The leather was impossible to burn, and the material was extremely tough.

As Keith was forking over his money to buy the gloves, he heard Ezor snickering behind him. “Nice fashion choice,” she said.

Keith rolled his eyes, but as he turned around to look at her, he almost recoiled in shock. Ezor’s arms, legs, and… head limb thingy? (Keith wasn’t sure what to call it) were covered in bracelets that matched Zethrid’s colors. 

“Look who the fuck is talking! What the hell are you wearing?!”

“What? I like them!”

“Yeah, but that’s going way overboard!”

“Sorry I don’t confine my colors to just black and red all of the time!”

“What?! Black and red are good colors!”

“Yeah, and so are the colors I’m wearing!”

“I never even said anything about the colors!”

They went on like this for a while, Keith angrily grabbing his new gloves and shoving them in his bag and Ezor crossing her arms and scrunching up her nose. Finally, Acxa ran into them and stopped them from fighting. 

“We need to make a good impression on the people surrounding us on missions, you two. People need to be able to trust us.”

Keith threw his arms up in the air. “Well I’m sorry! I wasn’t the one who insulted the other’s sense of fashion!”

“Actually, you did!”

“You did it first!”

They were about to go at it again, and Acxa slammed her hand onto her face. 

“Both of you need to cool down. Keith, Ezor wasn’t trying to offend you, you know that she teases. And Ezor, Keith wasn’t insulting you either, he was just surprised at what you were wearing.”

Ezor and Keith both grumbled something at each other before they begrudgingly apologized to each other. After Ezor eagerly ran off to find Zethrid, Keith turned to Acxa.

“You remind me of Shiro, sometimes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Keeping the peace between teammates.”

Acxa gave him a smile and motioned for him to walk with her. They maneuvered down the stands, looking at interesting things. Keith noticed that Acxa was purchasing a lot of things for her and Veronica. It was kind of funny when they were nearing the end of their visit to the market since Acxa was struggling to hold on to all the things she was buying. Especially since by that point, Keith was carrying only half of what she had bought.

The last station they were at, Acxa bought some sort of tonic and handed it to Keith.

“That’s for you,” she said.

He looked at the bottle. “Uh… why?”

“Well, I guess it’s not for you specifically, but for Krolia.”

“Uh… what is it?”

“It’s something that helps with morning sickness. Works miracles.”

“Okay, first of all, how do you know that? Second of all… why would Mom need this?”

“It’s just something to help her along until she reaches full term?”

Keith stopped walking. “Full term?”

Acxa gave him a confused look, before her eyes widened. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know _what_ , exactly?”

“I mean, she didn’t tell me personally, but it’s so obvious at this point, what with her symptoms and smell. I’d though she’s have at least told you about it.” Acxa started rambling on.

“You mean to tell me… that my mom, Krolia…”

“Is pregnant,” Acxa finished for him.

“Krolia is pregnant, Keith.”

——————

Keith immediately booked it for Krolia’s house the minute he and his unit touched down on Daibazaal. He didn’t even go home to his dorms at the Blade housing to change out of his suit. Kosmo had to hurry to follow him out of the ship.

He didn’t even think to call her to make sure she was home before knocking on her door. Keith impatiently waited for her to answer, and when Krolia finally opened the door, he barged past her inside.

“Keith- ” she started as Keith managed to reach the kitchen, but he cut her off, slamming the bottle of morning sickness medicine on the table. 

“Mom, I need you to be completely honest with me.”

“What’s going on?”

“Are you pregnant?” He looked her straight in the eyes.

A series of emotions crossed Krolia’s face, going from shock to panic to steely apathy. That apathy melted off her face though, when she caught sight of Keith’s pissed off expression. 

“Yes, Keith.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Because, Keith. I didn’t know how you’d react.”

“Well, I would’ve reacted better than this! What the hell, Mom?!”

“Sometimes kids don’t like it when their parent… moves on from the other parent.”

“I just want you to be happy, Mom! Unless the father is an absolute prick, I’d be fine with it! It’s your life!”

Krolia sighed. “I know, but… I don’t want you to think different of me, Keith. I didn’t want you to be mad at me for finally getting over your father, and starting another family.”

Keith crossed his arms. “I’m a mature adult, Mom. I’m not some asshole that doesn’t want his mother to be happy just because she’s happy with someone other than his dad.”

“I… see.”

Krolia looked down. She had a guilty expression on her face, and Keith knew that his body language towards her wasn’t making it any better. He gave his mom a look, and silently kicked himself. How had he not noticed it sooner? While it wasn’t extremely obvious, there was definitely a small baby bump on his mother. He closed his eyes and gave a long sigh. Kosmo mimicked the sigh and laid down at his feet.

“How far along are you?”

“About… three and a half phoebs…”

“Three months?!” Keith felt upset again. His mom had been pregnant for that long and he hadn’t realized?

Before he could say anything that he might’ve regretted, however, he took a deep breath. 

“Who’s the father?”

“I think you already know.”

So his and Lance’s theories were correct. But was his mom and Kolivan actually together or just looking out for the baby?

“Was it… an accident?”

Krolia have Keith a strange look. “It certainly wasn’t planned, but… it wasn’t a mistake, if you get what I mean.”

So they were definitely a couple. Keith walked over to the dining room and sat himself down. “You gotta tell me about this sort of thing, Mom. I want to be there for you, and I am happy for you.”

Krolia started slowly nodding, before a big smile spread across her face and she walked over to Keith to wrap him in a big hug. When they pulled apart, Krolia gave Keith a loving, motherly look.

“I want you to know that just because I’m having another baby with someone different from your father,” she said, “It doesn’t mean I’ll love you any less, Keith.”

Keith returned the smile.

“So… do you and Kolivan have any names?”

“Well, for a boy, we were thinking Yorak.”

“Oh my God, Mom, don’t name it that if it is a boy.”

“Why not? You know, you were almost named that.”

Keith groaned. “Yes, I know. I was in the quantum abyss with you when we got all those flashbacks.”

“It’s a name great warriors have, Keith.”

“I’ve never met any great warriors named Yorak.” Kosmo huffed in agreement. “Do you have any other ideas for boy names?”

“Well, not really, although we have plenty ideas for names of its a girl.”

“Such as?”

“Caelia, Nyalla, or, um…”

Krolia scratched her head. “I’m trying to remember one that Kolivan suggested.”

Keith gave her a blank look. “Well don’t look at me, I wouldn’t know what it’d be.”

“It was something like, uh, Avanna or Avennoa. It’s on the tip of my tongue.”

“Okay, so. My question to you and Kolivan is as to why you have normal sounding names for a girl, but freaking ‘Yorak’ for a boy.”

“These are all traditional names for Galra, Keith. What’s normal for you may be strange to someone else, and vice versa.”

“I guess…”

Krolia snapped her fingers. “Avanniya! That’s what it was!”

“That’s pretty. Although I like Caelia better.”

“Well, we’ll have to see what the sex of the baby is.”

Keith gave his mother a warm smile, all thoughts of hurt gone. They spent the rest of the evening talking about baby-related things.

——————

It was when he arrived on Daibazaal from a particularly stressful mission a few weeks later. There were some hostile animals on the planet Yammira that were attacking towns and cities. They were incredibly tough bastards to drive away without killing, and Keith’s unit had to call for two more just to barely get the job done. They had to stay a couple of nights on the planet, which sucked since Keith had left his phone back on Daibazaal.

There were a bunch of missed calls when he did get home. From Pidge, Veronica, and a couple of unknown numbers. The last thing he recognized was Lance’s number popping up with a few missed calls.

Keith was extremely confused, but he listened to all twenty-three voicemails. 

“ _Hey Keith, it’s Veronica. Uhh… we were wondering if you by any chance know where Lance is? My parents are pretty worried, and usually I’d just chalk it up to normal parental worry, but… I think they’re serious this time. Anyways, call or text back when you get this._ ”

“ _Hey, this is Pidge. I know we haven’t talked for a while, but Lance’s family is really worried. They can’t find or reach Lance, and, well, we’re just calling everyone Lance might be close to. If you have any information on him, contact us ASAP. I’ll talk to you later._ ”

“ _Keith, hello, this is Lance’s mother. I got your number from Veronica. Lance left two days ago and we don’t know where he went. Please, if you know where he might be, please let us know._ ”

“ _Hi Keith, this is Luis. I’m using Lance’s phone to call you, but we don’t actually know where Lance is. We found our car and his phone on the beach and his shirt just out of reach from the shore. We’ve been calling Hunk and Shiro, but they haven’t picked up, probably busy or something. Anyways, I guess you probably are too, but if you get this, please call us back. We’re really worried about where Lance might be._ ”

“ _Keith, hi, Veronica again. I know you must be busy, especially since Acxa isn’t picking up either. But please, if you get any information, please let us know. If Lance contacts you at all, please tell us. We’re all really worried._ ”

The rest of them basically said the same thing, but it was still very unnerving to Keit. 

Lance was missing?

He immediately called Veronica back.

“Keith! Oh my God, finally. Hunk called back, but he didn’t know anything about where Lance might’ve gone. Do you, at all?”

“No, sorry, I don’t even really know what’s going on. What exactly happened?”

“I- I don’t know that much either. I wasn’t in Cuba when it happened, and I’m not able to leave work and see for myself, but apparently, Lance went out on the middle of the night and hasn’t come back. His car and stuff were still at the beach a few days later.”

“The shore?”

“Yeah. Anyways, thanks for calling, even if you don’t know anything about what might’ve happened. I’ll keep you and everyone else updated.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Veronica hung up. 

Well. 

Keith purposely fell back onto his bed. He felt Kosmo, in all of his giant, wolf-y glory, crawl in too, but since he was in the middle of the bed and Kosmo was almost the size of a horse, he ended up sitting on top of Keith. 

He slowly pet Kosmo’s fur, thinking about what his next course of action would be. Could he take some time off to go to Earth and help Lance’s family?

Was he that badly needed in the Blades? Sure, he helped them transition from a rebel group fighting against tyranny to a humanitarian organization, but after everything was settled, he was just like any other Blade member.

Kosmo gave him a pensive look that Keith returned. He didn’t know why, but that action solidified his decision.

“You wanna go back to Earth for a bit, Kosmo?”

——————

Acxa agreed with Keith and actually joined him on his trip back to the Earth, and subsequently Cuba. Throughout the entire travel through the intergalactic port and eventually airport, Keith was nervous and anxious. He barely even noticed all the trouble that Kosmo was giving them when they tried getting through the TSA and onto the plane.

It was raining when he and Acxa arrived at the family farm and everyone seemed to be there. Lance’s other two siblings, Rachel and Marco, were actually home as well, along with their kids, so the house was in chaos when they arrived. Pidge was also there, which was a shock to Keith.

Hunk and Shiro weren’t there, but everyone knew they were on the Atlas and couldn’t just leave their posts, unlike Pidge and Keith.

Keith hoped they were able to find Lance before the Atlas would be arriving back on Earth in a few months.

He and Acxa greeted Pidge. Kosmo gave a happy bark at the sight of her.

“You two are dressed up fancy today,” Pidge said, taking note of the Blade suits Keith and Acxa were wearing. 

Keith rolled his eyes. “I have a feeling we’ll be taking a little swim, and our suits give us air underwater when we’re wearing our masks.”

Pidge nodded her head. “Good point. We should head down to the beach, now that you guys are here. I brought an underwater suit from the Garrison myself, so I’ll put it on in case we need it. Marco and Luis are already down there, so we’ll meet up with them.”

“Right.”

Pidge walked back inside to put on the suit, so Keith and Acxa walked back to the rental car. Keith took out his knife and began cleaning it. 

“Keith, your knife is already clean,” Acxa said.

He shrugged. “It just gives me something to do with my hands, okay? Nerves are shot right now.”

Acxa flashed him a worried look, but didn’t say anything more. 

When Pidge got back, she was wearing a shirt over her Garrison suit. Keith was letting Kosmo explore the farm, so the wolf wouldn’t be joining them at the beach. Acxa motioned for Pidge and Keith to get a move on and he opened the door to the front seat to get in.

“Why is it me that has to sit in the back?!” Pidge yelled.

“You’re the shortest, therefore you sit in the back.”

“Come here and say that to my face!”

“I am saying it to your face.”

“Just remember Keith that despite all of your tall ass Galra genes, you’re still shorter than Lance! I was the only one shorter than you in Voltron!”

They continued making jabs about each other’s heights, but Keith knew it was all in good fun. Something to lighten the mood a bit.

As the car pulled up to the beach, Keith saw Luis and the person he presumed to be Marco scavenging the shore. The waves looked rough, and no one else was there since it was raining.

The three exited the car and Acxa greeted Marco and Luis.

Marco greeted Pidge and Acxa in Spanish. They responded back and started a conversation, while Keith stood there dumbfounded and unable to understand. Finally, Luis noticed Keith and apparently let Marco know that Keith didn’t speak Spanish.

“Oh, sorry!” he said, holding his hand out, “I’m Marco, Luis and Lance’s brother.” Keith took his hand and shook it, saying “I’m Keith, nice to finally meet you.”

Everyone then looked at the shore. There were rocks with numbers everywhere, and Luis explained why. “We were trying to trace Lance’s footsteps and see where he might be. What we have so far is that he left the house sometimes late in the night after going into the trophy room, and took the car to the beach. Sometime after arriving here, he went into the water. Although I guess we can’t know for sure, it was a few days before we found his clothes, all of which had been heavily raining. Any actual footprints in the sand would’ve been washed away.”

“Wait, go back a second,” Pidge interrupted, “The trophy room?”

“Yeah, it’s a room we have for awards and stuff the family’s earned as kids,” Marco explained, squatting down to rearrange a rock.

“How do you know he stopped that specific room?”

“Well, there were wet footprints leading in there.”

“So Lance must’ve left before going in, and then came back.”

“Oh… shit, that’s a good point.”

Keith looked at the two brothers. “Why would Lance have stopped in the trophy room?”

Marco scratched his head. “I… don’t know. I can’t think of anything that’d be useful to him in there.”

Luis’s eyes widened. “Wait, Keith, remember when he went into the water last time and almost drowned?”

“Yeah?” Keith resounded, crossing his arms.

“He didn’t have anything to help him breathe, which is why he wasn’t able to stay underwater.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Ok, so the trophy room also has old uniforms from the teams we were apart of when we got the trophy. Like, my old baseball uniform. So, the old paladin armor Lance wore was put in there too.”

Keith and Pidge’s eyes widened. “Did he take it?” Keith said, pieces falling together.

“No, it wouldn’t have made sense for him to take the entire thing,” Pidge said, a hand stroking her chin, “Otherwise his clothes wouldn’t have been lying out on the shore. And I highly doubt Lance decided to change out of his clothes and into the entire set of armor outside in the rain.”

“I’ll call our mom back at the house.” Luis walked back to the car, taking out his phone. Pidge started pacing back and forth across the beach.

“So Keith, this happened before?” she asked. Keith nodded in response. “Yeah, last time I visited. Lance’s marks started glowing and he just… walked into the ocean. Krolia was visiting too, and she was the first person to notice something was wrong.”

“What could have triggered him to act that way, though?”

“I don’t know. I assumed it was just a panic attack or some kind of mental breakdown.”

“What would cause him to have a breakdown though? PTSD from the war?”

Keith looked at Pidge, confused for a few moments as to why she didn’t understand Lance’s depression. Then he realized that Pidge didn’t really see Lance outside of the paladin dinners or related events, and had never actually been to the farm before now. Keith pondered whether or not it was his place to tell her what was going on with Lance, but he thought about how right now, Lance could be in trouble. Wondering whether it was a breach of his privacy was something Keith could not be focusing on right now.

“Lance has had a… really tough time these past couple of years.”

Acxa nodded in agreement. “You probably haven’t noticed, Pidge, but I’ve been on the farm quite a few times since I met Veronica. There has definitely been a steady change in Lance’s personality since Allura’s passing,” she told Pidge.

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty bad, actually.”

“That’s… I don’t… wow…” Pidge looked down at the sand.

“He really misses Allura,” Marco pitched in, “You must have noticed him drifting apart from everyone in his life.”

“I guess, but I always just thought it was because, yknow, everyone had their own lives.”

“That’s probably part of it, but… ”

Acxa trailed off. The conversation had definitely put a damper on the already low mood, and everyone went quiet. Keith looked at the pile of Lance’s clothes, soaking and sandy from the beach and rain. He started to feel like crying, but he didn’t. 

Luis coming back from the car/phone call was what broke the melancholy silence. “Okay, so, yes, Lance’s suit is still there, however, the helmet is missing.”

“Of course!” Pidge cried, slamming her fist into her palm, “It makes sense.”

“Wait, does the helmet even work without the rest of the suit?”

“It should.”

“Do you think it… fell off in the water?”

“Maybe.”

“We should dive in and see what we can find,” Acxa suggested, walking towards the water. Pidge and Keith nodded in agreement.

“You two should keep marking up here,” Keith said, looking back at Marco and Luis. They both gave him a smile and a thumbs up. “Will do, Keith,” Marco replied.

Keith and Acxa activates their masks, while Pidge put on her helmet. They all looked at each other, gave a nod, and got into the water. When they ran out of ground to walk on, Acxa gave one last wave to the brothers still on the beach and the three dove under.

It was very close to shore, so of course they weren’t surprised when all they saw was sand, seaweed, and a couple of crabs. The current was tugging at Keith, though, from all directions and he didn’t like it. Pidge didn’t look like she was enjoying it either, but Acxa seemed fine.

“What’s that over there?” Pidge said.

Keith looked in the direction she pointed. “What’s what?” 

“There’s something shiny. Might be worth checking out?”

“Yeah.”

The three swam over to where Pidge had been pointing at. They rested on the ocean floor and Pidge shuffled around to get what she was looking for. In the meantime, Keith looked around. The water was kind of murky, but it didn’t seem dirty. He saw a few pieces of trash float by, though, and he clicked his tongue in disgust. 

“What… the hell?” Pidge said suddenly, snapping Keith out of his thoughts. Both Acxa and Keith turned their heads to Pidge, who was holding something that was indeed, shiny. 

“Is that… an Altean juniberry?”

“Why the fuck is it glowing?!”

“What the fuck.”

They both cursed out of surprise for a few minutes while Acxa stood next to Pidge and looked at the flower from where she was standing. “Is it possible Lance had one on him and dropped it?” she asked, but Pidge frowned. 

“Maybe, but… it’s been about a week since he went missing, and if he was the one to have this flower, it would probably have died by now, or at least been torn apart.”

“Well, it is an Altean plant, so maybe it has special properties?”

“My mother and I have done extensive research on Altean flora, and the Altean juniberry is not meant to survive underwater. It also shouldn’t be glowing.”

“Are you sure it’s an Altean juniberry then?”

Pidge just flashed her an annoyed look, and Keith had to keep himself from snickering. “Acxa, Pidge is probably the smartest person I know, so if she says it’s an Altean juniberry, then it probably is. Besides, it looks identical to the ones all over the farm, right?” he said, looking at Acxa.

Acxa nodded in response. “True… I’m just laying out all the possibilities.” She reaches out for the juniberry in Pidge’s hand and took it, holding it close to her face to examine it further. “Wait… is that a piece of hair?”

“What?!” Pidge snatched the flower back and shoved it in front of her face. “It is a piece of hair. We’ll need to do further examination, though. I have all the needed tech to do so back at the Garrison in Texas.”

“What about his helmet?” Keith asked, reminding them of the reason why they were even underwater. Pidge once again stroked her chin. 

“I honestly doubt we’ll find it, but maybe I can track the location of it from my old helmet or yours, Keith. There’s always a video camera attached and if Lance really did use his helmet, it should’ve still recorded,” she said, making her way towards the surface of the water. Acxa followed, but Keith hesitated for a second. 

“Are you sure we should leave now?”

“No. But we’ll definitely be back if we don’t find anything. In the meantime, we should let Luis and Marco know that this is probably the right time to contact the police.”

“Wait, you mean they haven’t contacted them yet?!”

“Technically, they have, but you know there are a lot of missing people, sometimes even daily reports. They can’t get to everyone all at once. But since we’ve found more information, this should give them a start.”

They slowly made their way to the surface of the ocean. The waves were still rough from the rain, but they were still able to make their way to shore rather quickly. Pidge gave Luis and Marco the information they needed, before her, Acxa, and Keith made their way back to the farm. 

——————

Before Keith and Pidge left for the Garrison, Acxa announced that she was staying on the farm to help support the family. Veronica was scheduled to be back in Cuba in a few days, so Keith figures that Acxa would want to be here for and with her.

Pidge had arranged a flight back to Texas for her and Keith the next day, so they packed almost straight away. When said next day came, Keith said goodbye to Acxa and Lance’s family. He caught sight of Nadia and Sylvio, as well as a bunch of other kids he assumed were Marco and Rachel’s children. 

Keith was a little annoyed that he and Acxa had spent the previous day driving to Lance’s farm and now he and Pidge were spending another day driving back the day after. Even Kosmo seemed uncomfortable and unhappy, being cramped in the backseat of the rental car a second time. But he kept his mouth shut. This was for Lance.

“So… how’d you like the farm?”

“It was nice. Wish I’d come here under better circumstances.”

“I hear you.”

“Can’t believe Lance still has Kaltenecker.”

“Did you think he’d ever get rid of her?”

“Nah, guess not.”

Pidge sighed. “I wish I’d have known Lance was having a hard time. I would’ve tried to be there for him.”

“Well, he did put on a good act,” Keith pointed out, “He always seemed so happy at paladin dinners, and we barely saw him otherwise, yknow?”

“Yeah. I bet Hunk knew, though.”

“Well, duh, he’s been visiting the farm for years with Shay. Besides, he’s Lance’s best friend.”

“That’s true, I guess.”

Keith sighed. “I hope he’s okay, wherever he is,” he mumbled, looking out the window. 

“Ditto. Hey, random sidetrack, but do you wanna stop for something on the way to the airport?”

“Well we could get something to eat at the airport itself, so I don’t see a point.”

“Come on. I know we have an objective right now, but I’ve never been to Cuba.”

“You can do some exploring here after we figure this shit out, Pidge.”

“It’s just lunch!”

“I don’t know why you asked me in the first place if you were gonna insist on stopping for food anyways.”

“Fine! Jeez! I’ll wait for the damn airport!”

The car settled in an annoyed silence between the two of them. Keith didn’t know why he was so touchy, but it didn’t stop him from acting irritated. Kosmo let out a low growl at the tension inside the vehicle. Eventually, though, after Pidge had made a turn onto the highway, she flashed him a worried look.

“Keith, are you okay?”

“What? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know, you seem really on edge.”

“And you aren’t? One of our friends is missing and you expect me not to be worried?”

Pidge gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter. “Of course I’m on edge. You just seem to be a more little out of sorts than you’d usually be.”

Keith looked away.“I guess. I don’t know.” 

“Is there something you want to talk about?”

“Not particularly.”

“You sure?”

She gave him such a look that made him not want to say no to her. Well, he could trust her, right? This wasn’t some random stranger. This was Pidge. Pidge who he’d fought alongside with during their time as basically the saviors of the universe. 

“I think… I like Lance.”

“Like… like-like?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “No, like like-hate.”

“Don’t gotta be rude about it!”

“Sorry.”

His face flushed in embarrassment as the reality to what he said sunk in, but Pidge didn’t make fun of him like she probably would have back as paladins of Voltron.

“Thought you were over him.”

“I was.”

“What changed?”

“I’m… not sure. It started back when I first visited the farm, though.”

“You fell for him again in just two visits?”

“I… yeah. I mean, I don’t really see him outside of the stuff we all do together, and even then, it’s pretty limited. Spending time with him and knowing him on a more personal level is… awakening?”

“Awakening in the, uh, sexual kind of way or...?”

In response to that, Keith swatted Pidge’s arm, who squawked in response and swerved on the road. She giggled. “I’m just kidding, man, chill,” she said. Keith rolled his eyes again, but gave her a little smile. 

“Guess it makes sense why you’re so… cranky right now.”

“Guess it does.”

“Worried sick about him, eh?”

“Yup.”

“Does he feel the same way?”

“Probably not. He’s still not over Allura, and he’s given no indication that he’s attracted to guys”

“Does he know?”

“No.”

“I see.”

Keith paused. “Really? Not gonna make fun of me?”

“Why would I make fun of you for this?”

“I don’t know, you teased Lance about Allura back in the day.”

“I was 15, Keith.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Besides, this is… kind of a serious situation. Sometimes the jokes and teasing need to be put aside.”

“Yeah…”

Keith slumped a tiny bit in his seat and took his messy ponytail out. His bangs fell around his face, somewhat blocking his view.

She put one hand on his shoulder and rubbed it in a soothing manner. “It’ll be okay, Keith, really.”

Keith took a deep breath in. “Yeah, I hope so. But, this isn’t about me. Even if he doesn’t like me back in that way, he’s still in need of our help. We’re his friends.”

Pidge nodded, so he gave her a weak smile in hopes to let her know that he was okay.

Because he really was. He wasn’t the one that was dealing with some pretty rough shit. He wasn’t the one that went missing in the middle of a storm. He wasn’t the one that felt like a burden on everyone around him.

Keith had a stable life. He had a job he loved, friends he enjoyed, the best mother a son could ask for. Hell, he’d even be getting a baby sibling soon. Life was good for him.

And bad for Lance. So the least Keith could do was his feelings didn’t get in the way of finding Lance. He wasn’t the one suffering.

He had to be strong for Lance.

——————

As Pidge was getting things set up at the Garrison, Keith went back to his shack for the night. It was familiar and comforting. The desert surrounding it was also something he enjoyed, so it was an extra bonus. Kosmo liked the desert as well, so there wasn’t too much resistance from him.

After he stripped down to a t-shirt and boxers and crawled into the bed, he looked around the room. He had basically grown up here. When his dad was alive, they lived here. When he was accepted into the Garrison, he came here on the holidays, sometimes with Shiro. Even though the house was small and rusty, and in desperate need of minor fixes, Keith still found himself coming back every year. Turned out that a house with only three rooms total could be considered cozy.

He wondered if Lance would ever come to the shack. Technically, he had already been, but that was years ago, the day they first found the blue lion, but it was just to hide out from Garrison officers. 

Since Kosmo was too big for the bed, he sat on his own cushions on the floor. Keith could hear him softly panting in the silence of the house. He reached a hand over the side of the bed to pet his back. Then he sighed and threw his other arm over his face. 

He fell asleep just like that.

——————

The next day, Keith was up early so that he would reach the Garrison in a timely manner. It was pretty hard to get up, though, since the time zones were very different than on Daibazaal. 

Kosmo seemed to sense his anxious anticipation, and hovered near him. After downing two cups of coffee and dressing so that he was at least presentable, Keith grabbed his old paladin helmet. He and Pidge had decided that it would be easier to just get his helmet since it wasn’t in a museum, and this would be easier to access.

He locked up the shack and headed out. The drive to the Garrison was peaceful and calming since he got to watch the sun wake up. 

He arrived at the Garrison in an hour, perfect timing for the normal start-time for breakfast. He called Pidge to let her know he was there, and she gave him the clearance to be let in. Keith could’ve also just gone in by himself since he was a former student and fighter at the Garrison (not to mention a former paladin of Voltron), but he felt awkward just walking in. Much better to have someone else’s company.

Before getting to work, however, they went to the cafeteria and got something to eat. Keith always really liked the food at the Garrison, even back when he was just a student, so there weren’t any complaints from him.

As they ate, they examined all of the cadets in the cafeteria. Pidge wasn’t exactly a teacher, but she had told Keith that she did occasionally run a seminar with the students. She was pointing out some of her favorite kids.

“And that blonde kid over there with the cast? That’s Mac. He’s really smart.”

Keith took a bite of food from his fork. “Did he break his arm in a fight?”

“Keith, not everyone was a violent edgelord like you.”

“Whatever. So how did he break his arm?”

“He’s just clumsy as hell, man. He was on cafeteria duty and he slipped on soap.”

“That’s an anticlimactic way to hurt yourself.”

“I mean, other kids have had more embarrassing shit happen. Did I tell you about Gina?”

“No. Who’s Gina?”

“That girl sitting by Penny, at the table next to where I pointed Luke out.”

“Wow she is… really tall, holy shit.”

“I know, right? Anyways, like, three years ago, she got her first period in the pilot simulation.”

“Oh my God. Poor girl.”

“Yeah. And she literally had no idea what it was! I’m not kidding!”

“I thought sex education was improving.”

“Well, of course her parents are the ‘opt out of sexed’ kind of people. Good thing it’s a mandatory thing here.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“But yeah, she started shrieking at the top of her lungs, and one of the people overseeing that particular simulation had to stop and check on her. All of the kids saw her with a red stain on her pants.”

“Jeez.”

“Gina’s a good student. She’s just… really oblivious to a lot of stuff.”

It pretty nice, gossiping about the cadets. A few timidly approached the table and asked to have a picture with Keith, to which he awkwardly nodded. He was not good with kids, but he didn’t want to disappoint anyone by refusing.

“I don’t know why they want a picture with me,” he grumbled after a group of some of the younger cadets walked back to their table.

“Dude. You were the leader of Voltron! Not to mention, a member of this badass humanitarian organization with a cool name! Of course people are gonna want a picture!”

“Well, what about Shiro? He was the leader of Voltron at one point too.”

“Shiro’s not here right now. And besides, he’s here like six months out of the year, so they see him anyways.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything.

Another hour passed before he and Pidge were finished with breakfast. Keith had almost forgotten about the task at hand what with how at ease Pidge made him feel. Almost.

Pidge said hi to a couple of coworkers as she led Keith to her personal lab. He gripped the helmet tight in his arms as he hurriedly followed her through the hallways. She stopped them in front of a door and entered a very long password in the lock. When it opened, she walked in and clapped her hands twice. The lights flickered on.

Keith hesitantly followed her and the door shut behind him. It was a very large room. Pidge walked past tables and machinery full of mechanical parts and all sorts of alien technology.

She stopped in front of a huge computer, and sat down in the seat in front of it. Keith pulled up a chair and sat next to her. Pidge turned the computer on and began typing some codes to unlock it. Keith raised an eyebrow.

“That’s… a lot of encryption on one computer.”

Pidge turned towards him and gave him an unamused look.

“Keith. Keith. Do you know how many secret projects, governmental information, and scandalous reports are on this here computer alone?”

“A lot?”

“Correct. Therefore, the heavy encryption layers shall remain.”

“Fair.”

“Besides,” she said, grabbing a water bottle on top of the desk and taking a sip, “I got a lot of weird porn on here I don’t want anyone seeing.”

Keith choked on his own spit. “I… did not need to know that,” he coughed, looking anywhere but at Pidge’s face.

She shrugged. “Not like you don’t watch porn.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Whatever, man.”

Pidge went back to typing. Keith let out a big sigh. He tapped the helmet nervously, and the sound echoed slightly in the huge room, barely covering the sound of Pidge furiously typing away.

Eventually, she took the helmet from Keith’s hands and hooked a bunch of wires to it.

“Okay, so, I’ve dug through my computer and opened some files and programs I saved onto it regarding data from the lions and paladin suits. Obviously, I can’t track the lions anymore, but I can track where the suits are based on one of them. At the very least, I can hack into the recordings of another helmet.”

“What’s our plan for after we get his location?”

“We’ll just have to see what happens afterwards.”

Keith nodded. Pidge turned back to the computer screen. “It’ll take a little while to load,” she explained, eyeing the big buffering picture on the screen, “Meantime, do you want something to drink?”

“Like what?”

“I have juice and soda in my mini fridge. Or wine. I have some bottles of wine.”

“Wine? Is that allowed here?”

“I’m over 21, Keith.”

“I mean, here at the Garrison. I didn’t think having alcohol would be permitted what with the lots of teenage cadets here.”

“Yeah, well, some things don’t necessarily need to come to the attention of my higher-ups. Do you want some or not?

“Should probably stay sober right now. Can I just have like, water?”

Pidge backed away from her desk, still sitting on her chair (since it had wheels), and rolled over across to the other wall. She opened the mini fridge and tossed Keith a water bottle. Then she rolled back over to the desk. Keith flashed her a grateful look.

——————

Minutes passed. Then an hour. Then two. The loading icon was moving incredibly slowly. 

Throughout the duration of those two hours, Pidge had worked on one of her many engineering projects. She asked Keith for help a few times, but most of the time, Keith wandered around the lab.

By the time it was nearing the third hour, Keith had fallen asleep and was slumped over on one of the tables. However, that was the moment the loading screen decided to finally finish.

“KEITH GET OVER HERE!” Pidge screeched, practically flipping over the table she was working at as she zoomed to the computer.

“Wha- huh, waz happening?!” Keith snorted. He shot to his feet and almost fell backwards into the wall behind him. Pidge was suddenly furiously typing away as she beckoned Keith closet with a finger.

Keith sat down next to her, his eyes laser-focused on the screen. There was a map of the galaxy, with four icons. The red, green, and black icon was marked somewhere in the Milky Way. The yellow icon was among the planetary system that held Naxzela. 

“Hunk takes his suit with him on the Atlas?”

“It’s more like he basically lives there half of the year, plus the fact that members of the Atlas still have things to do on board when on Earth, so it just stays there.”

“I see. Why is the black paladin suit lighting up, though?”

“It’s in the same museum that mine is stored at.”

“Okay, but I thought it was broken or destroyed.”

“The right arm might’ve been cut off and thrown into the infinite void that is space, along with his old Galra arm.”

Keith averted his eyes at that. “Okay?”

“Buuut, the rest of the suit was intact, and since Shiro wasn’t using it anymore, we put it in the archive storage.”

“I see.”

They turned back towards the screen. 

“Where’s the blue one?” Keith asked.

“Since it’s your helmet that’s wired up, the first icons that’ll show up are the ones nearby, within at most the same planet.”

“Why did Hunk’s show up, then? He and Shiro are like, several galaxies away.”

“Because I then put in the codes for the yellow paladin suit to see if Lance was near where the Atlas is.”

“Why didn’t you just put Lance’s code in?”

“… I don’t… know… but! Anyways! I’m putting the code for the blue paladin suit now, so, shut up.”

Keith rolled his eyes as Pidge continued to type away. After a long series of numbers, symbols, and letters, she finally hit enter and the blue icon popped up.

Both of their eyes zeroed in on it. But what surprised them the most was the fact that right over the blue icon, a pink icon appeared. Keith’s eyes widened and Pidge gasped.

“Is that…?”

“How is that possible?!”

“What the hell?!” 

Pidge put a hand on her forehead. “I tried this, if you recall, years ago. With… with Allura’s suit. Nothing popped up. I tried again for two whole years, and nothing. Nothing, Keith!” she rambled.

“So… what does this mean, exactly?”

“It means… Allura is still out there… and wherever she is, Lance is there as well.”

“What about a video? Can you pull up the recording of Lance’s helmet?”

“Yeah, hold on.”

A few minutes passed, before the video finally downloaded and Pidge hit play.

It started off back on the rainy beach where Lance’s clothes had been found. Through Lance’s visor, they could see the thundering storm overlooking the rough waves. It was clear that he cheeks were glowing, what with the bright blue light that was just slightly off camera. After a few moments, Lance walked into the water.

Keith and Pidge watched intently as Lance went further and further into the water, before diving underneath the waves completely. His heavy breathing was audible in the video, and Keith was glad that he at least wasn’t going to drown. It was too dark and murky for them to see anything noticeable at all for a while, until a faint pink light in the distance of the water appeared.

Keith’s hand tightened on the back of Pidge’s seat as Lance got closer and closer to it. The light was taking shape, the figure becoming more and more clear the nearer he got.

Their eyes both bugged out when they got a close look.

It was Allura.

Some sort of light that was taking the shape of Allura.

Lance stopped swimming. “Allura?” his hoarse voice was heard saying.

“Lance…” Allura said, turning towards him, “I need to tell you something. It’s important.”

Lance’s arm was seen reaching out. The light version of Allura looked surprised, but she reached a hand out to meet his. Before their hands could touch, however, there was a blinding white light and a loud boom.

Even though the recording was filled with said light, Lance screaming out, seemingly in pain, was audible over the deafening roar. Then the audio and visuals were cut off.

Keith and Pidge looked at each other in horror.

“Is there anymore recording?! It’s supposed to record all the time!”

“No… that’s it…”

Keith stood up and slammed his hand on the desk. “We need to find him! And Allura, if she really is with him!”

Pidge nodded firmly.

“I’ll go make some preparations with the Garrison. We’ll leave no later than tomorrow.”

——————

Their icons pointed to Arus. Back where it had all began. And Keith was determined to find them.

Pidge, due to her high status at the Garrison, was able to take some time off to go in search of Lance. She also pulled some strings to get Veronica some time off a few days earlier than originally planned. Veronica had wanted Acxa to come along too, but she had decided to stay in Cuba anyways to help support her in-laws during their momentary crisis. 

So it was just Veronica that would be joining Pidge and Keith.

Keith picked up Kosmo from the desert, and the three then boarded a Garrison spacecraft. No extra pilot was needed since all three not only had gone through flight training at the Garrison, but also had flown many different spacecraft; both on a planet and in space.

It was a few hours journey to Arus. It was still mostly a planet for the natives. There were a few hotels and cities with alien technology and culture, but majority of the planet was all for the Arusians. It was, in fact, one of the least communicative and visited planets for this reason. Since both Keith and Pidge had been on the planet, however, as paladins of Voltron that first befriended them and saved them from the Galra, they would most likely be welcomed back.

The ship was filled with worry the entire ride. Keith was the one piloting the ship this time, but he felt sympathy for Veronica who didn’t have the task of flying to busy herself with. Pidge tried to cut the tension a bit by starting up a conversation.

“So, anything new going on with you guys?”

“Acxa’s birthday is coming up. Well, the day that we celebrate her birthday, we technically don’t actually know when it is.”

“Wh- how do you even know how old she is?”

“Well, we did some tests. She should be somewhere around 29 or 30 this year.”

“Cool, cool.”

Uncomfortable silence.

“Uh… Keith, how about you? Anything interesting going on?”

“Well… uh… Krolia’s pregnant.”

“Oh my God! Really?!”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so exciting! You’re gonna be a big brother!”

“Mhm.”

More uncomfortable silence.

Pidge seemed to give up, since she sighed heavily and slumped into her seat. Keith went back to focusing on flying the ship, and Veronica looked outside of the window. Kosmo moved to sit next to her, most likely sensing her worry for her brother.

“So, I’ve never been to Arus. I’ve only heard stories from Lance,” Veronica said suddenly, breaking the quiet.

“The natives are… interesting… and nice…” Pidge replied, “Although they’re pretty peaceful most of the time.”

“Most of the time?”

“Well, to others at least. They do tend to have… somewhat violent rituals… as alternatives for the peaceful ones. Never against non-Arusians, though.”

“That’s good to know.”

——————

The rest of the trip was relatively quiet, with only a few bouts of turbulence, but everyone still had shot nerves. They landed in the only airport on the entire planet, which meant that the rest of the journey to find Lance and Allura had to be done on foot. Or at least on land, in a car. 

Pidge had a tracker on her that she used to look for the signals given off by the paladin suits. It took them the entire rest of the day just to get three-quarters of the way to where the signal was. Luckily, there was a nearby rest stop and motel that they could stay at instead of sleeping in the car in the middle of nowhere. 

They only got one room, but there were two beds. Keith didn’t want to force Veronica and Pidge to sleep in one bed, and he was certain that they didn’t want to share a bed with him, so he offered to sleep in the car with Kosmo. After taking a shower, he gathered some of the pillows and a blanket. He headed back out to the car with Kosmo and laid the front seat back. The lights at the rest stop were supposed to stay on all night, so Keith didn’t get the luxury of having darkness to help him sleep. Since they had rented a minivan, Kosmo was able to actually stay inside the car instead of in the cold, exposing back of a truck.

Keith sighed and took out his journal. He liked to sketch a bit when he was stressed out. He looked over at Kosmo, who was sleeping soundly in the back of the car. His fingers moved over the paper delicately, and the image of his wolf and the surrounding car was brought to life. Afterwards, though, he still felt the itch to draw, but he couldn’t think of what it was that he should. 

His thoughts drifted over to Lance. Before he could even think that deeply about it, Lance’s smiling face was staring back at him from his sketchbook. Keith softened the lines around Lance’s mouth and eyes as he fixed up the sketch.

It made him sad that he probably would never get to hold Lance in the way that he wanted to. The only time he did was back at the farm, when Keith carried Lance’s weak body back into the house after he had collapsed in the barn. But that wasn’t supposed to be an intimate moment. He wanted to carry Lance like that more, but because Lance wanted him to. Not because Lance physically could not lift himself up off the ground.

With a heavy sigh, Keith closed his sketchbook and threw it back into his bag. He laid back in the seat and covered his eyes with his arm in an attempt to get a tiny bit more darkness.

Images of Lance filled his mind as he slowly drifted asleep.

——————

A loud, frantic knocking on the window early in the morning woke Keith and Kosmo up. He opened his eyes to see Pidge and Veronica with distressed facial expressions. He shot up and unlocked the door, quickly pulling the pillow and blankets off of the seat.

“Allura’s icon is gone!” Veronica yelled, waving her arms and gesturing towards the tracker Pidge had.

“What?!”

“We don’t know why! Lance’s is still there, but if Allura’s disappeared, we need to get to wherever he is as fast as possible!” she continued.

“Right, so get your ass up and go get ready in the motel room. You have no longer than 10 minutes!” Pidge gruffly added. Veronica slid into the driver's seat and Pidge pulled Keith out of the car, shoving his bag at him.

Keith hastily ran into the motel and went to the bathroom. He got dressed as fast as he could, grabbed his bag and the room key, and dashed back over to the car.

“Did you leave anything in the room?”

“No! Just give the innkeeper the damn key, Keith!”

He did just that before zipping back over. He hopped into the back seat with Kosmo and Veronica immediately shoved her foot on the gas pedal.

The entire time, Keith’s heart was pounding right out of his chest. If Allura was no longer on the radar, how long would it be until the same happened to Lance? 

It took way too long, in all three of their eyes, to finally reach the place that Lance supposedly was at. Two and a half hours, without a single stop. Thank God they had refueled the car the previous night at the rest stop.

When they finally got to the area where the blue icon was at, they all jumped out of the car and ran as fast as they could in that direction, which happened to be a forest. They all called out his name, searching throughout the vast woods.

Eventually, they reached a little Arusian settlement. They frantically asked the inhabitants if they’d seen Lance. 

“Oh, do you mean the mortal lover of the Lion Goddess?” one of them piped up

“The what?”

“The Goddess’s mortal lover! He appeared on the Goddess’s altar and But we recognized him as a definite lover of the Goddess,” she continued, the rest of the group nodding their heads in agreement.

“He visited us deca-phoebs ago, along with a group of others, yes, yes, dressed in blue. The Lion Goddess in her mortal form as well,” another chipped in.

Keith raised one of his eyebrows in confusion. If they recognized who Lance was, did they not know who he and Pidge were.

“Where is he?” Veronica interrupted. The Arusian who had been speaking the most smiled and beckoned for them to follow. She led them to a small cave made of sandstone. There were carvings of lions all over the entrance, and they walked inside.

Lance was there. Laying on the altar, unconscious, with lit candles around him. He was dressed in clothing similar to that of the Arusians and his helmet was sitting tenderly on the ground next to it.

Keith, Pidge, and Veronica stood, looking at him in shock. “He’s been sleeping ever since he arrived here ten quintants ago,” the Arusian said, breaking the silence, “He awaits his awakening from the coma put upon him by temporarily reuniting with the Goddess.”

With a cry, Veronica rushed forwards. She cradled Lance’s head in her arms and tried shaking him awake. When that didn’t work, Pidge and Keith hurried up to him.

“Lance… Lance, wake up!” Pidge desperately said.

Keith stood next to him and stared at him, still slightly in shock. Lance’s face seemed to be relaxed. His Altean marks weren’t glowing. Keith put a hand on Lance’s forehead.

“Lance… please wake up,” he whispered, tears starting to form in the corners of his eyes.

Severals minutes passed.

“Lance, please!” Keith said, more urgently. Veronica was softly mumbling in Spanish and Pidge was still shaking him.

Keith’s hand moved to his cheek, and he tried one last time.

“Lance… everyone is waiting for you. Your family, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro… me… please wake up!” 

Seconds passed.

And then… then….

Lance face scrunched up a bit.

It relaxed again. 

His eyelashes started fluttering, and his eyes slowly opened.

All three of them, Veronica, Pidge, and Keith, went completely silent.

“Allura?” Lance asked. He sat up and looked at them. “Keith? Veronica… Pidge?”

Still, none of them spoke a word. Lance looked down at himself, realized what he was wearing, and then whipped his head back up. He examined the room, confusion slowly painting his features.

“Where the hell am I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Twitter: @cafri_jonique


	6. Red and Black and Green and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance just can’t catch a break. Especially not his face. His face his having the hardest time ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out! I was super busy over the past few weeks, and I've actually been applying to online writing stuff 'n shit. Still in process of doing that, actually, but I wanted to get this chapter out!  
> I was planning on making this chapter longer, since it'd been so long since I updated, but I realized that setting a word count standard was part of what was causing me to write so slow, so I hope you're okay with the usual amount of words!
> 
> If you haven't, you should check out my new fic "Blood Runs Half-Full", which is a Klance fic in a Camp Half-Blood AU
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

The last thing he remembered was seeing Allura reaching out to him.

Then a blinding flash. 

Pain and fear. 

His body spasming underwater and his mouth opening in a agonized shout.

Then… nothing.

And finally… 

“Lance.”

In his state of nothingness, Lance was able to make out more of Allura. 

His vision was extremely blurry, but the unmistakable shape and voice of Allura was hovering above him, cupping his cheek in one of her hands. He brought a hand up to touch hers. It felt warm.

“Where I am?” Lance breathlessly asked.

Allura flashed him a warm, smile. He missed that smile.

“I was trying to deliver a message, so that we may finally speak.”

“Aren’t… aren’t we speaking now?”

The smile on Allura’s face softened into a sad one. “No, Lance, not really. This is a projection of me. I want to talk to you in person, though.”

“Alright.” Lance’s voice was shaking.

“Another projection was trying to communicate with you, but then lightning struck the water above where we were. The combination of the water, salt, and quintessence caused a minor explosion of magicks and spiritual energy.”

“... What?”

“I used all of the leftover power that I had from the first projection to pull you into a different realm, and to save your body from burns and damage.”

It was a lot for Lance to take in, but he kept his smile on. He… he was actually talking to her again. Some spiritual projection of Allura, yes, but still Allura nonetheless.

“So was that you that first time?”

“Yes.”

Lance felt a slight sting in his eyes.

“-ance. You must go… net inside of…. yss.”

Allura started speaking again, but this time, her voice started to sound choppy and parts of her sentence were cut off. Lance tightened his grip on her hand. His Altean marks were glowing brightly.

“Can you… say that again?”

Allura returned his grip. “If… ish to sp… me, you… to the pl… side of the… ss.”

She began to fade. Lance quickly sat up.

“Allura, wait!”

She looked behind her before facing Lance again. “I… go, now. I’ll… give further instructions… beacon in… Altea… meadow. I hope… speak … soon.”

Lance didn’t know what to say. “Please don’t go.”

Allura gave him a sad look before she burst into fragments of lights. Lance tried to grab at them, as if they could bring her back, but they floated out of reach from his fingers and slowly faded away.

His marks stopped glowing. A sudden wave of exhaustion and sleepiness hit him like a bag of bricks. He tried to keep staying conscious, but was unable to fight the onset tiredness.

His eyes drooped closed.

——————

Lance felt something rough on his cheek, different from Allura’s soft hands. He also heard voices.

The feeling was strangely comforting, though.

When his eyes opened, a figure was leaning over him yet again, in the same position Allura had been in when he woke up in… that other realm. It was too blurry to make out who it was for sure, though. 

“Allura?” Lance asked. 

His vision cleared. 

And it wasn’t Allura standing above him.

“Keith? Veronica… Pidge?”

Surprisingly, he didn’t find himself as disappointed to see Keith instead of Allura as he thought he’d be. Still, it didn’t deter him from the thoughts of his deceased lover bouncing around his head.

She said something about… about giving him more instructions on how to see her again. This… this beacon. In an Altean… farm? Garden? Forest? Lance wracked his brain to try and remember what that last word had been. Something to do with plants.

He told himself that he’d figure it out later. First he should figure out what exactly is going on.

Lance slowly looked down at himself and holy hell, what in the world was he wearing?! His head snapped up and he got a better look at his surroundings.

Lance was definitely not at the beach. He was also definitely not on his farm. He was definitely not dressed in the shorts he had been wearing when he first dove into the water And the other beings staring at him besides Keith, Veronica, and Pidge were definitely not humans that resided in Cuba.

“Where the hell am I?”

Veronica looked at Pidge, who looked at Keith. They all looked tired, and they all had extremely worried expressions on their faces. There even seemed to be… tears, in the corner of Veronica and Keith’s eyes. Wait. What?

Keith sniffed and wiped a hand under his nose while Pidge cleared her throat. It effectively broke the silence. “Lance, you are currently on Arus. In an Arusian shrine to their Lion Goddess,” she explained. Lance squinted at her in complete confusion.

“Why- why, exactly, am I on Arus?”

“Uh…” Pidge said, looking at Keith and Veronica for support, “We want to know that as well, actually. We were going to ask you, in fact.”

Lance stood up and off of the platform he was laid upon, only to have his knees wobble. With a yelp, he almost fell over, but Keith caught him.

Whoa there. He was in Keith’s arms again and it was just… whoa. They were warm. Just like before. He found solace in that tiny bit of comfort he experienced in this very confusing and distressing moment.

“Why… am I so weak? I am really, really confused as to what’s happening right now,” he mumbled, frustrated at the fact that he couldn’t even stand.

Suddenly, he was unable to breathe. Veronica has run over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug that literally took his breath away. 

“Ah… what the hell, Ronnie?”

“Don’t ever run off again, Lance! We were worried sick! Mamá, Papá, everyone! Even Marco and Sam, and Rachel, Gavin, Hector and Elisa travelled to the island!”

“I- what?”

Veronica unwrapped her arms from around his body and jerked him forwards by the shoulder, looking him dead in the eye. “You were gone for almost two weeks, Lance!” she said sharply, “We thought you were hurt!”

“Wait… two _weeks_? What the hell?!”

“Veronica…” Keith said, putting a hand on her shoulder, “He’s obviously confused, and definitely weak. We should take it easy on him.”

Veronica gave him a small glare before closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh. “We’ll talk later. Let’s get you home, first,” she said, grabbing his hand, “Can you walk?”

Lance nodded and pushed away from Veronica. He absentmindedly picked up his helmet from next to the platform he had been laying on. 

Pidge, Veronica, and Keith walked towards the entrance to the shrine cave. The shaking of his legs seemed to stop and he trudged his way out to join them. The Arusians surrounding him were murmuring enthusiastically.

He ignored them and caught up to Keith. “Do you have any extra clothes?” Lance whispered to him, still pretty mortified by the fact that he was wearing weird, Arusian cloths and adornments. At least his privates were covered.

“Uh… I have an extra pair of jeans? I think?” Keith replied, “I don’t know if it would fit you, though.”

“I’d rather wear clothes that don’t fit me than whatever the hell this is.”

——————

They made it to what Lance guessed was the car Veronica, Pidge, and Keith had rented. He was thankfully no longer feeling any bit of shakiness in his legs, but he still felt self conscious.

The Arusians had followed them, but were no longer saying anything. It unsettled Lance.

Keith opened the car and Lance got sight of a giant, furry body. 

It had been years since Lance had seen Kosmo. Keith didn’t usually bring him to the paladin dinners. Lance knew that the space wolf was huge, but Kosmo seemed to have gotten _bigger_ since the last time he saw him.

Veronica shoved him in the car just as Keith got in from the other side. Lance stiffly sat up and Keith tossed him a pair of jeans.

“Treasure the goddess’ blessing and visit us again!” one of the Arusians called out. Then they started cheering.

Lance sunk deeper into the car seat, feeling even more embarrassed. There wasn’t much room to change, but he managed to wiggle on Keith’s jeans under the skirt-thingy he was given. Thank God no one had removed his underwear.

“Your legs are fucking tiny, Keith,” he quietly muttered, slightly irritated at how tight they were on him. Keith flashed him an exasperated look, but didn’t say anything back in response.

“So Lance. Now that we’re all comfortable in the car.” 

Great. Veronica had that rough tone in her voice. This was going to be a fun conversation.

“Yeah?”

Veronica abruptly turned around in her seat to face Lance in the backseat. “What the absolute fuck were you doing here? And not contacting your family?! Who was extremely worried, by the way!” she snapped. Lance let out a sigh.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t _know_?”

“No, I don’t. I didn’t get here by myself, I literally went for a swim and then woke up here.”

“Why were you going for a swim in the middle of a thunderstorm?!”

“I… um…”

“Well?”

“You know what, that’s none of your business, Veronica!” Lance barked out,“I’m almost 25 years old, I don’t need to explain why I do the things I do.”

“You do when your actions leave the entire family worried sick! Everyone took off work to come back to Cuba and help figure out where the hell it was you could have been!”

“Well, Veronica, going to the beach doesn’t really mean that I willingly blacked out and woke up at some stupid Arusian shrine!”

Lance and Veronica continued arguing, the shouting starting to delve into angry Spanish. He didn’t even know why he was being this defensive. Because yeah, while he obviously didn’t choose to get magically transported to Arus, he still willingly went to the beach, knowing he’d find something suspicious and weird, knowing that it was a slight risk.

Keith looked uncomfortable listening to the argument, and while Lance couldn’t see Pidge’s expression since she was focusing on navigating the roads, he could tell that she was too.

“I don’t want to argue about this, Veronica. Can we just… talk about this when we get home? Please?”

Lance heard a sigh, and he knew he had won Veronica over.

“Fine. But you are giving me and the rest of our family an explanation.”

“I will.”

“Good.”

And thankfully for Lance, that was that.

——————

Lance chatted with Pidge a bit when they boarded the ship to get home. It kind of made him feel worse.

He felt really guilty that he it made him feel bad, but he couldn’t control that sting of jealousy and longing as Pidge explained all of the grand projects she’d been working on over the past few months and all of the interesting people she’d met. And it wasn’t as if Lance didn’t want to hear about it. He definitely did, and the stories she told were really fascinating.

It just once again forced him to take a look at his own life, and he couldn’t help but compare.

On top of all that, he couldn’t stop thinking about Allura.

——————

By the time they had arrived back on Earth, Lance was certain of what he was going to do. Of course, he needed to wait a week or something for his family to calm down (and admittedly for _him_ to calm down).

At some point on the trip back, Veronica had given him a jacket and flip flops, so at least he wasn’t half naked (or naked at all) and barefoot when they arrived back to Cuba. 

He and Veronica didn’t talk much.

When they finally pulled up to the farm, the sun was setting. Lance didn’t know what he was going to say. He couldn’t really… explain what was going on. He still didn’t know why or how he had been transported to Arus.

Probably something to do with Allura.

They’d most likely think that he was hallucinating or something if he explained his conversation with Allura, like Keith had back in the ocean. Hell, he himself questioned it before it happened a second time.!And if there was one thing he absolutely did not need in that moment, it was his family thinking he had gone coo coo bananas. 

Better to keep that part to himself.

“I need a cigarette,” Lance mumbled. He almost instinctively reached for his side, since there was usually a pack in his jacket pocket, but he remembered that it was Veronica’s jacket.

Fuck. He needed a smoke.

It wasn’t raining, which meant that the series of thunderstorms probably ended in the time that Lance was gone. Even so, he still shivered when he got out of the car. 

Luis and their dad were picking weeds from the field, so they didn’t notice him and his companions. Although, his mom, who was walking out of the barn carrying a pail full of milk, definitely did. 

With a cry, she dropped the pail and ran towards him. 

“ _¡Lance! ¡Lance, mijo!_ ”

He forced a wary smile on his face when she practically tackled him. She hugged tighter than Veronica had.

“ _Ai, Mamá._ ”

When she finally broke the hug, he awkwardly shuffled backwards.

“ _¿Donde estabas? ¡Todos estábamos preocupados!_ ”  
{Where were you? We were so worried!}

“Uh…”

“ _¡Toda la familia salió a buscarte!_ ”  
{The whole family came down to help find you!}

“ _Ya se. No quise que se preocuparon_.”  
{I know. I didn’t mean to cause a fuss.}

“ _¡Tienes mucho para explicar!_ ”  
{You have a lot of explaining to do!}

“ _Ya se, ya se. Voy a... me voy a bañar primero_.”  
{I know, I know. I’m just gonna... take a shower real quick first.}

“ _¡No te vas a escapar de esa explicación!_ ”  
{You aren’t getting out of telling us!}

“ _No me voy a escapar, nada más me voy a bañar_.”  
{I’m not getting out of anything, I just need to go shower.}

“ _Mamá_.”

Both Lance and Mamá turned to the sound of Veronica’s voice.

“Let him go. It’s just a shower.”

Their mother gave Lance a worried look before she nodded her permission. Lance stiffly walked into the house, his arms wrapped around his stomach and his shoulders perked up. As if he could hide himself from his family.

“Lance is back!”

“ _¡Hermanito!_ ”

“ _¡Tio Lance!_ ”

“Lance!”

His family bombarded him with hugs and worried murmurs the minute he walked through the door. He didn’t say anything, though, and Acxa finally clapped her hands.

“Guys, let’s give him some space,” she said.

Lance scratched the back of his head. “Hey, I’m just a little tired right now, so I’m gonna get cleaned up before we talk.”

Acxa and Veronica greeted each other with a kiss. Veronica pulled Acxa and the rest of the family aside to talk. Keith and Pidge awkwardly joined them, so Lance just shifted into the hall and subsequently, his room. 

He took off Veronica’s jacket and laid it on his bed, along with his paladin helmet. 

With a sigh, he walked into his bathroom and took off Keith’s jeans and the remnants of the outfit the Arusians dressed him in. He stared at himself in the mirror for a few minutes.

His eyebrows were unruly, and his eyes were puffy. His hair was matted and greasy in some parts. While he didn’t seem to lose any muscle tone, he was definitely a little skinnier.

Well, what did he expect? Basically in a coma for week, not moving, not exercising, not eating.

Sighing, Lance took out all of the special soaps and shampoos he used and turned on the shower. He placed a shower fizzy next to the bar soap. When the shower faucet was finally raining down hot water, he took off his boxers and stepped in.

For the first few minutes, he didn’t wash himself. He just stayed under the spray of the shower, hands on the wall in front of him. 

The water felt good on his back.

——————

When he started to get a little dizzy, Lance finally stepped out from under the direct spray and applied his products. Everything was smooth on his skin, and he could almost feel them drawing out the dirt, grease and whatever in hell else was on his skin.

Suddenly, as he was massaging shampoo into his scalp, there was a bright flash next to him right there in the shower.

And then a heavy, furry weight on top of him. Needless to say, he fell down.

And subsequently hit his chin on the side of the shower.

“Ow, what the fuck!” Lance wheezed, thoroughly startled and confused as pain shot through the bottom of his face and the wind was knocked out of him.

With a second flash, the weight was gone. Despite feeling a little dazed, Lance managed to feel a little relieved.

Until he slowly looked to the side.

Standing there, now getting wet from the shower, was an apparently just as confused Keith.

Keith… who was in Lance’s shower. While Lance was showering. Without clothes. Incredibly naked. The soap that would have covered his groin rinsed off by this point.

They slowly made eye contact.

Lance screamed. Keith screamed.

“What the fuck?! What the fuck are you doing in here?!” Lance shouted, scrambling to simultaneously cover his crotch and try grabbing a towel from outside the shower curtain.

Keith gave him a horrified look. “I- I don’t- Kosmo just- ” he stuttered. His face was growing red. “Is- is your chin okay?”

Lance felt his own face getting red.

And, for some reason, his marks started to glow faintly.

“Get out!” Lance shrieked, “Get out of my bathroom!”

“Right! Right! On it! Yeah!”

He hastily jumped out of the shower and Lance heard the bathroom door abruptly open and close.

What the fuck. 

_What the fuck_

Keith really fucking better not have looked anywhere below Lance's chest.

Why the hell had Kosmo teleported Keith into his shower?

Come the fuck on.

He just wanted a nice, hot, uninterrupted shower.

Lance gently touched his chin, and hissed at the pain. Thankfully, there was no blood on his hand, which meant that he wasn’t bleeding, but still. A giant, nasty bruise was going to form in that spot.

Lance’s face just couldn’t get a break, could it.

——————

He knew that he should’ve gone out and talked to his family, but he just couldn’t do it. Lance wasn’t too eager to see Keith right away after he had seen him butt naked and covered in space wolf hair. And Keith was probably gonna be wherever his family was at the moment. 

Oh God, had he told anyone? Keith wasn’t exactly the best at explaining, so he’d probably make it sound weird and not accidental. On top of that, Lance knew his family, and he could make an educated guess they’d assume certain things happened or were happening that were not.

Although maybe not. It’s not like they knew he was also into guys. He’d shown literally zero interest in men before, and that one boyfriend he had back when he was a young teenager had been away from his family, where they wouldn’t know that it even was a thing.

Lance opted instead to just lay down on his bed. His chin hurt like a motherfucker, and on the chance that Keith hadn’t told anyone, he didn’t really want to explain why the bottom of his face was black and purple.

Instead, he reviewed what he was planning to do.

Allura had said something about a… plant-related thing on Altea. He hadn’t really been able make out what else she was saying, so it was a good start. Lance needed to get to Altea, and maybe talk to Coran about it. Coran probably would have a vague idea of what Allura was talking about. 

He reached over to open the drawer on his nightstand. His fingers fumbled around before they wrapped around an unopened pack of cigarettes and the lighter on top.

Lance jumped out of his bed and looked out his window. He was craving a smoke, but even in his current unhappy and embarrassed state, he was not going to do so in the house. 

But if he left his room through the door, his family would see him and insist on talking. And then he’d have to try to answer questions he didn’t know the answer to. And refrain from telling them what he saw lest they take him to a mental hospital. And also avoid eye contact with Keith.

He didn’t want his family to think he was missing again, in case they went to his room while he was gone, so he wrote a note and left it on his bed. Then he went back to the window and unlocked it.

Grabbing his jacket and shoving the pack and lighter into it, Lance crawled through the window. His feet hit the soft grass outside.

Lance took a cigarette out and placed it in his mouth. Before he lit it, he discreetly walked all the way to the barn. He gave Kaltenecker a head scratch on the way and climbed up the hay loft. He was careful not to turn the lights on in the barn so that no one would come and find him.

He sparked the lighter and held the flame out to the end of the fag in his mouth. He took a long inhale as he looked up at the ceiling of the barn.

Moisture from years of rain had soaked through and damaged parts of the wood up there. There was even a sizable section above the hay loft that was gone, letting the sky look down on him. Lance noted that he and Luis probably would have to get it fixed in case it rained again. Other than the roof, though, the rest of the barn looked like it was still in good condition.

If there was one thing that Lance did right in his life, it was building this farm from the ground up. While technically the land itself belonged to his parents, the house was under both his and Luis’s name. Someday that land would get inherited by one of his siblings. And then the land would get passed down to their kids. Rinse. Repeat. Who knows how long it would go on for? How many generations past Lance, or even Nadia, Sylvio, Elisa, Hector, and Samantha for that matter, would this farm be sustained?

Of course, it was possible that Lance would be the one to get the farm, but he somewhat doubted that. Maybe he wouldn’t get kicked off, sure, but he probably wouldn’t be having a family to give it to like Luis did. Or the rest of his brothers and sisters, for that matter.

His stomach growled. How long was it since he had eaten? Pidge had given him a granola bar on the flight from Arus to Earth, but that was all. 

Lance groaned. He needed a sandwich or something.

Come to think of it, he probably should also start heading back to the house. An explanation of sorts, no matter how very not knowledgeable Lance himself was on the topic of what the fuck happened, was indeed owed to his relatives. 

And yet, instead of getting up and climbing down the hay loft like he should’ve, Lance took another puff of the cigarette.

——————

He stayed there for what was probably an hour before someone came into the barn. It was pointless to try and hide, since whoever it was would just hear him scrambling through the hay. Besides, they would smell the smoke, and rest assured, the cows did not get their hands on any smoking materials. Even so, Lance let the other person speak first before he said anything. He didn’t even move from his little hay pile, just continued smoking and looking up at the ceiling.

“Oh, uh, hey Lance.”

Great. It was Keith of all people.

Lance found that a tiny corner of his consciousness wished he was smoking a heavy joint of pot instead of a common cigarette. At least that way, he wouldn’t be sober, and therefore, he wouldn’t be able to have a conversation with Keith that he’d remember.

Oh well.

“Did my family send you to find me?”

“Uh, no, everyone else except for me and Pidge went to bed. I don’t think they noticed you were gone.”

“Good.”

He breathed out a plume of smoke.

“Lance?”

“What?”

“Why are you in here?”

“Could ask you the same thing, Kogane.”

Lance heard shuffling from below, and then a hard thunk on the ladder leading up to the loft. 

Great, so Keith was climbing up. 

“I was just checking on the cows…”

“Since when do you ‘check up on the cows’ whenever you’re at the farm? And this late at night?”

“Maybe you aren’t the only one that needed a private spot to brood, hm? Ever think about that?”

“I’m not brooding.”

“Right…” 

“And didn’t you say everyone’s asleep?”

“Not the point!”

Keith’s head poked up from the edge of the loft. He looked kind of sheepish, which was, to Lance, a bit odd.

“Look,” he said, scratching his head, “I’m sorry for… earlier. I swear I didn’t mean to get teleported in your shower.”

Lance sighed and turned his head so that he and Keith were looking directly at each other. 

“Did you see anything?”

“What?”

“Did you… see anything?” he repeated, using his right hand to motion over his nether region.

“Oh. No, no, I just saw a flash of skin.”

“Okay, then that’s that.” Lance patted the area next to him and Keith got off the ladder to sit down there.

Of course, that wasn’t that and Lance still felt incredibly embarrassed about the situation. But it was better for Keith not to worry about whether he was mad at him or not.

He offered a cigarette to Keith, who held a hand out to stop him. 

“Uh, no thank you. I don’t smoke. And really, neither should you.” He said that last part so quietly Lance almost didn’t catch it. Even so, he chose to ignore it.

“It’s just this one time.”

“I’m good, really.”

Lance shrugged. “Suit yourself, Mullet-boy.” He put the cigarette he was smoking out and lit the one he offered to Keith. As he took a big inhale of it, Keith frowned. However, he thankfully didn’t make another comment about it.

“Is your chin okay?”

“No, but I think my face is getting used to all the physical trauma it has to endure.”

“Huh.”

Lance stretched his arms. “So.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “So?”

“Million dollar question. How did you, Pidge, and Veronica find me?”

“Your helmet.”

“My helmet, huh? Good thing I brought it with me then.”

“Yeah. Hey, uh… I think you should know this.”

“Know what?”

Keith scratched his head. “Well… when Pidge hacked into the tracking beacons into the location of all of the suits using my old helmet, we… kinda…”

“Kinda?”

“Er…”

“Spit it out, Kogane.”

“Well, we got a, uh, a signal for… um… Allura’s helmet…”

Lance stopped smoking. The cigarette fell out of his mouth. He shot up and stared intensely at Keith.

“Allura’s helmet showed up?”

“Yeah. The reading showed that it was in the same spot you were.”

“Is it… still there?

“No. The signal disappeared shortly before we found you in person.”

“Oh.” Lance placed the cigarette back into his mouth.

“Oh?”

“What?”

“I don’t know, I thought you’d have a little bit more of a reaction to this piece of news.”

“Normally I probably would, but first of all I’m tired.”

“That hasn’t stopped you from being dramatic before.”

“I’m going to ignore that. Second of all, it makes sense.”

“... What? How is Allura’s helmet popping up something that ‘makes sense’?”

“Oh. Right. You weren’t there.” Laying back down in the hay, Lance sighed. He felt a little bad for the confused expression on Keith’s face, but he really was tired. Also, he didn’t want to tell Keith about his encounter with Allura lest he once again wrote it off to his life flashing before his eyes.

“There for what?”

“Nevermind that. Hey, do you like stars? Do you know constellations?”

“Lance, don’t change the subject.”

“Who’s changing the subject? I just like talking about stars, yknow?”

“Lance…”

Lance’s face grew slightly dark. “I’ll put out the damn fag and refrain from smoking for the rest of the night if you just go along with it, okay? I don’t want to talk about today.”

Keith looked a little put-off, and his mouth opened and closed several times. “Okay,” he finally managed to say.

Lance stabbed the lit butt of the cigarette into a bit of dirt that was near him. Then he tossed the pack of cigarettes at the wall. “So stars!” he chirped, forcing his voice to sound cheerful. He pointed to the hole in the ceiling. “Know any?”

“Uh… I know the… Big Dipper?”

“Oh come on! We’ve both travelled to and from the ends of the universe! How do you not know any of the cooler Earth constellations?”

“I do know some! I just… can’t remember a lot of them. I remember… Canis Major, I think that’s how you call it? Or is it Ursa Major?”

“Very impressive, Kogane. You named two separate constellations.” 

“Well fuck you! You do better!”

“I will!”

Lance sat up and searched the sky visible from the hole. “There! I think that’s… Lepus. The rabbit. No wait, it’s a hare.” He traced the constellation in the air.

“Whoa.”

“Yeah. And of course, that outline of stars above it is the ever-famous Orion.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of that one.”

“Everyone has, Mullet. Everyone has.”

“Shush.”

They both chuckled. Pointing out stars was… actually really relaxing for Lance. It was definitely easing his stress a little.

“Oh, okay, over there. I don’t know if you can see it, it’s kind of hard to make out this time of the year, but under Lepus is Columba.”

“You mean that one?” Keith pointed to where he was looking.

“Yeah! Yeah, that’s it.”

“What does Columba represent?”

“It’s a dove, I’m pretty sure.”

“Wow. You… know a lot about stars and constellations.”

“I only named three constellations. But yeah, I guess if you ask me to name all 88 of them, I can do that too.”

“I didn’t know you studied astrology.”

Lance laid back down and settled himself in the hay. “Well, I mean, I learned the constellations back when I was in elementary school. It was what made me want to become a fighter pilot in the first place.”

Keith stared at him, interest painting his face. “Really? I thought you just liked the idea of shooting stuff from a giant ship.”

“Nah, man. I wanted to see the stars up close.”

“Huh.”

He turned his head to look at Keith. “What about you? What made you want to be a fighter pilot?”

Keith shrugged. “Shiro.”

“That’s it?”

“I didn’t really have any motivation to do… anything in life. Hell, the only reason I even got into the Garrison was Shiro.”

“You must have had some interest in it, though, right?”

Keith scratched his head. “I guess?”

“You guess?”

“I dunno.”

“But… Keith, there must have been something you wanted to get out of being a cadet?”

“I don’t… I don’t know.”

“Come on! You couldn’t have just gone on a wim, there must be a reason!”

“Lance.”

Lance almost flinched at the seriousness of his tone. “What?”

Keith’s expression was blank and unreadable. There was something dark in his eyes, but to Lance, it seemed to be more of some kind of sorrow than annoyance.

“I was in a slump for years, and it only worsened when Shiro disappeared. My dad was dead, Shiro was gone, and I never knew my mom. I don’t know if you could tell back then, but I didn’t have any friends. I had a total of two relationships the entirety of my time as a cadet, one of which was, as you know, a girl that I was just using to try and prove to myself I wasn’t gay. Which I ultimately wasn’t able to do.”

“Oh, uh… huh.”

“In fact, the only thing that really snapped me out of it and gave me a purpose was tracking down the blue lion and subsequently, becoming a paladin of Voltron.”

“Hm.”

“So of course I wouldn’t have known what really interested me. I was given an opportunity, and I took it, not because of any particular excitement, but because I had nothing better to do. Of course a part of me liked space, or else I wouldn’t have taken Shiro up on his offer, but I didn’t know what I wanted in life.”

Oh. Lance… didn’t know what to say. He tilted his face back to the ceiling in hopes to avert Keith’s eyes, but he could almost feel them burning into the side of his head.

“Didn’t realize… shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“What? You don’t have to apologize, Lance. You were just asking.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Lance, stop.”

“Whatever,” he huffed. 

A blue flash of light distracted him for a second. He didn’t feel a tug in his gut this time, which meant it wasn’t Allura.

He looked back out the hole in the ceiling and saw the bright moon overheard. “It’s getting late…” he remarked, stretching his arms.

“Are you tired?”

“Very.”

“It’s a long walk back to the house. Do you… wanna just sleep here?”

Lance paused his stretching in midair and flashed Keith a funny look. “Uh… it’s not that far of a walk.”

Keith looked down. “Well… yeah, but… I mean… I don’t know, never mind.” 

Lance raised an eyebrow.

“Are you gonna sleep here?”

“Yeah. Think so.”

“Oh.”

They both looked at each other.

Those damn eyes. The glow of Lance’s Altean marks were reflected in those goddamn eyes. The smoky violet of Keith’s eyes mixed with the blue glow. made them… beautiful.

No, wait. They were already beautiful. The reflection made them… dazzling.

Dazzling, yes… 

Lance swallowed. Hard.

“You know… if you’re gonna stay here for the night, I guess I gotta make sure you don’t freeze to death.”

Keith’s eyes widened. Too late, Lance realized the implications of what he just said, and he did _not_ mean to give said implications. He quickly backtracked.

“Not like that! I mean… I gotta watch over you, yknow? I mean… yeah… you know what I mean, Mullet!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Do you want me to get like a, towel or something? To use as a blanket?”

“I’m good.”

“Okay.”

Keith made a little pillow out of the hay and laid his head down on it, placing a hand on his chest. Lance started to get up to move to the side of the hay loft, but Keith grabbed his arm.

“You don’t have to move, you know. You can fall asleep under the stars,” he said, pointing his chin to the hole in the roof. 

It could have just been his imagination, but Lance’s marks seemed to glow a little brighter.

“Wouldn’t it be weird though?”

“Why would it be weird?”

“I don’t know… I mean, we’d be sleeping next to each other.”

“So?”

“So…”

“It’s just sleeping.”

“I guess, but…”

Keith sighed and let go of Lance’s arm. “If you’re uncomfortable, I can be the one to move.”

“No, wait!” Lance said a little too hastily, “I’m not uncomfortable.” Keith raised an eyebrow.

“Are… you sure? I don’t want you to think you have to just because I suggested it.”

“I don’t. It’s fine! Like you said, it’s just sleep.”

Keith kept the skeptical look on his face before finally relaxing. He tucked the hand he had grabbed Lance’s arm with under his head. Lance discreetly watched as he shifted into a more comfortable position and closed his eyes. Lance himself laid down next to Keith, but just stared into the sky above him.

It was just sleeping. So why was Lance’s heart fluttering?

No, seriously, why was his heart fluttering? It was weird, and as much as Lance didn’t want to admit it to himself, he was uncomfortable. And confused. Extremely confused. 

Keith had seen him naked, and even though he didn’t see the details, the thought still crawled under his skin. Lance normally wouldn’t care if a guy saw him naked, especially if it was an accident. He’s a guy, the theoretical person who walked in on him was a guy. Nothing strange. Hell, he wouldn’t have cared if a girl saw him naked. It was just a body, it wasn’t like he was running around swinging his dick in public. But something about it being _Keith_ of all people made him feel… weird. Something a little different than embarrassment, but he really didn’t know what it was.

Not to mention, it was a unfamiliar feeling. It wasn't new, though.

Old? Forgotten? Happened so long ago that he thought it’d never happen again?

Was it even… what he was thinking? Was he just overreacting?

What the hell was going on?

Lance jolted up. He was about to get up, tell Keith he just couldn’t sleep alongside him, but he heard a small sigh. He turned his head and saw Keith, already passed out, and softly snoring.

_“When my head hits the pillow, I’m going to be lights out”_

Huh.

With a defeated sigh, Lance relaxed his body and made a little hay pillow, just like the one Keith made. The hay pillow wasn’t exactly comfortable, but at this point, Lance hardly cared about whether or not the straw was itchy. He looked over to his pack of cigarettes lying next to the wall. 

He really wanted to smoke another one. It was really hard to resist just reaching over and pulling one out.

But… he had promised Keith. 

Lance’s eyes flicked over to the sky above. Maybe naming constellations would help him get to sleep.

——————

He woke up in early, but the sun was up at least. Lance registered a warmth right next to him, on his chest, but he couldn’t place it right away. The surrounding area was cold, so he was immediately attached to said warmth.

His face was pressed against something soft, and he felt really comfortable. His eyes twitched under his eyelids, but he didn’t want to get up just yet. He didn’t want to move. Then the warmth shifted and Lance heard a grunt.

Okay. That prompted him to open his eyes.

And he was met with the back of Keith’s stupid mullet.

Which meant…

He was spooning Keith.

His eyes widened.

“What… the… hell?!” Lance barked out, startled. He jerked back and jumped to his feet. The sudden motion caused him to hit his head on the ceiling above the hayloft and he yelped out in surprise.

The motion and noise woke Keith up. In a flash, he was pointing his knife at Lance’s throat with a dangerous expression on his face.

And expression that melted into surprise and then guilt when he realized who he was pointing his knife it.

Lance gulped. “Uh…”

“Shit, sorry.” Keith lowered the knife and scratched his head. “It was just a, ah, a reflex. I’m too used to waking up with people trying to rob or kill me.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t even doing anything to you!”

“It just happens sometimes when I wake up to noise.”

“I wasn’t even making that much noise!”

“I know, I know.”

Keith sighed and sat back down in the hay.

There was an awkward silence between them. Lance nervously looked around, purposely avoiding Keith’s eyes. “So… how did you sleep?”

“I slept fine I guess. You?”

“It was… okay…”

“Are you… alright?” Keith sounded worried.

Lance at this point was sweating bullets. If Keith wasn’t saying anything, it meant that he didn’t know that they had… er… cuddled? In their sleep.

That was good. Lance didn’t want to address that on top of everything else he had to deal with. If Keith didn’t know, he wouldn’t say anything, and hopefully it would never, ever come up again.

Christ, what was wrong with Lance?

“I’m fine! I’m cool. I’m gonna go… uh… do chores.”

“Wh- wait, what about talking to your family about what happened?”

Lance waved a hand in the air in dismissal. “I’ll do that afterwards.” He brushed the hay off of his shirt and pants and walked to the ladder. “See you later! Make sure to get breakfast,” he called as he climbed down. 

Keith didn’t respond, and didn’t even try to follow him. Lance was certain he was probably really confused, but he just needed to get out of there ASAP. It was a bad situation the minute Keith walked into the barn.

And Lance, for one, needed to think.

——————

“You remember… nothing?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing at all?! You expect us to believe that?”

“Veronica, why do you think I didn’t explain anything earlier? It’s because I don’t know what happened!”

The family, along with Pidge and Keith, were gathered in the living room to listen to Lance recount the events that led to and happened during his unexpected trip to Arus.

Lance didn’t want to mention Allura, so he didn’t. He told everyone everything else he knew, but aside from Allura, he really didn’t know what happened. He didn’t know how he got to Arus, why the lightning disrupted the quintessence, or why 

So the skepticism Veronica and a few other family members (namely Marco) gave him was annoying… and a little hurtful.

He almost never lied to his family, even before he got into the slump, and when he did, it was little, unimportant things like whether he cleaned the cat litter or whether he took out the trash. Sure, he wasn’t telling them about Allura, but he wasn’t lying. He wasn’t making stuff up.

“Guys. I’m 100% serious right now. I don’t know what happened and why I was transported to Arus for a week. I don’t. I can’t give you information I don’t know and I’m not going to make something up.”

Veronica crossed her arms and Marco scratched the back of his head, but they both gave him shrugs.

“I guess if you’re telling the truth, I can understand that,” he said, obviously trying not to look Lance in the eye, “But Lance, you have you understand where we’re coming from. Rachel and I, and our families, we dropped everything to come look for you, and then it turns out you’re tucked away safely on Arus? And then you claim you don’t know anything?”

“I think you guys are being too harsh on him,” Rachel quipped, “He’s been through a lot already, and if he doesn’t know, then he doesn’t know.”

Lance sighed. “I do understand where you guys are coming from. I get it. I’d probably be skeptical too if the same thing happened to one of you guys. But please, you have to trust me when I say that I legitimately don’t know what happened. Maybe I shouldn’t have been going to the beach in the middle of a thunderstorm, but I wouldn’t have just left willingingly without a word to any of you.”

Their parents, who had been silent the entire time, exchanged a look. Lance couldn’t tell what they were thinking, and from the looks of it, neither could Veronica, Luis, Marco, and Rachel. Pidge and Keith were still awkwardly tucked in the back, right alongside Acxa. Mamá and Papá seemed to be having a silent conversation, and with every passing minute, the tension in the room grew. 

Veronica was saying something, probably to lighten the mood a little, but Lance wasn’t paying attention. His thoughts were slowly drifting back to Allura, and Altea.

And… Keith.

No. He didn’t want to think about Keith right now. Too many things had happened between them in the past two days, and he was ready for it to stop.

Allura. He needed to keep his thoughts on Allura. And how he was going to find her. Was it just a visit from the afterlife? Or would he possibly be able to… bring her back? 

If she did come back, what would she think of the farm? He knew she loved nature, and was fascinated by all of flora and fauna Earth had, but what about a farm? Would she like it? It was pretty much all he had to offer, but he felt like it was something she’d probably enjoy. 

Although, she never did get over how people got milk. After Lance had shown her and Coran how to milk Kaltenecker, they both were turned off of milk and any dairy-related drinks. 

He almost smiled at the thought of Allura on the farm. 

It probably wouldn’t happen though. Allura just said she wanted to talk, she didn’t say anything about Lance being able to bring her back to life. It was just wishful thinking on his part.

Lance was pulled out of his thoughts as Mamá and Papá both simultaneously cleared their throats. Everyone immediately gave them their full attention, even Pidge and Keith.

“I think,” Mamá began, “I think we need to move past this and put it behind us.”

“Right ,” Papá continued, “You obviously don’t know what happened, so we can’t really do anything about it.”

They smiled warily at everyone. The siblings all collectively sighed, whether it be out of relief or tiredness. 

Everybody dispersed to go about their day after each giving Lance a hug.

Lance watched as everyone went about their day as usual. His mother, Veronica, and Acxa were in the kitchen, making jam from the picked fruit. Rachel and her husband were riding the horses along the beach. Lisa was watching the kids, except for Nadia and Sylvio, who were at school. Luis and their dad was showing Marco around the parts of the farm that hadn’t been there the last time he had visited. 

Pidge and Keith… well, he honestly didn’t know what they were doing. They just walked back to their rooms. Pidge was probably doing something techy for stuff she missed while away from the Garrison.

Lance felt a stab of guilt course through him over Pidge being taken away from important Garrison work.

And Keith… well, who the fuck knew what he was up to. What was he even interested in other than the Blade? Lance didn’t care.

He didn’t.

Really.

——————

Funny enough, everyone left the same day. Pidge, Keith, Veronica, and Acxa had to get back to work ASAP, Rachel and her family were eager to get back home, and Marco and his daughter needed to fly out to Australia for a photography gig.

Rachel’s family was the first to go, early in the morning. Everyone saw them off with kisses and big, strong hugs. 

Then Marco and Samantha, right before noon. Finished helping Lance and Luis take care of the animals, then washing off and grabbing their bags. Leaving with more hefty hugs.

That just left Veronica, Acxa, and Pidge. 

And Keith.

It was almost sunset when Lance and the rest of the family sent them off with a wave and a smile, although for Lance, the smile was more of relief than anything. It had been an embarrassing ordeal to have to have Pidge, Keith, and Veronica literally track down his location based on his helmet.

“Well, we’ll be back sometime later in the summer for a week or two,” Veronica chirped cheerily, an arm around Acxa’s waist, “Probably July, during Lance’s birthday.”

“We’ll see you then, _mija_ ,” Mamá affirmed, giving her a big hug. Papá, Luis, and Lance did the same thing, one after the other. Then the family moved on to Acxa, who, having been part of the McClain family for years before she and Veronica got married, picked up on their habit of hugging.

Pidge adjusted her glasses and straightened her posture. “It was lovely to be here, Mr. and Mrs. McClain. The farm was really pretty, and I wish I had visited under better circumstances.”

“Yes, thank you for hosting us,” Keith added, a smile on his face. 

Mamá laughed. “You two are so polite! Unlike Lance and Luis here.” She said that last part while looked at said people in mock annoyance. Luis let out an indignant “hey!” and Lance rolled his eyes. Lisa giggled.

“Anyways,” Papá said, “You just come visit us again, Katie. Under those better circumstances.”

Pidge smiled at them. Both parents wrapped her in a hug, and Lance almost felt sympathy towards her since her tiny body was seemingly squished in their embraces. Everyone turned to Keith, who let out a nervous chuckle after seeing Pidge basically get flattened.

No matter. He still got his round of hugs, despite looking at Lance for help. Lance went over and gave Pidge a hug of his own. 

He was going to do the same to Keith, but then the thoughts over what had happened over the past few days started swirling in his head. He paused from leaning forward and shook Keith’s hand awkwardly. 

Fuck he should’ve just gone through with the hug. Now Lance was uncomfortably close to Keith, but it was weird since he was just shaking his hand. Crap, Keith was just staring at him. He wasn’t even really putting force back into the hand shake, Lance was just shaking his limp hand. Fuck fuck fuck shit fuck-

“Well,” Veronica interjected, to Lance’s gratefulness, “We should get headed out.”

Lance immediately let go of Keith’s hand and slowly moved backwards. Keith was giving him a funny look, which only confirmed Lance’s fears that he had just made a weird gesture.

“Bye everybody!” Luis called out as they started walking to the car, “Pidge, Keith, make sure to come back soon whenever you can!”

“Will definitely do, now that I’ve seen this place,” Lance heard Pidge say, nudging Keith’s arm. Keith himself looked back at Luis and nodded with a smile.

They walked off, and Lance watched. Even when Luis, Mamá, Papá, Nadia, and Sylvio went back inside, he stayed on the porch and watched as they drove off into the sunset.

By the time the sun was completely gone, a cigarette was already being lit.

——————

A few weeks later, Lance was ready to go to Altea. Everything had been arranged with Coran. He’d go visit a few schools before he went and searched every important plant-y area he could find. Hopefully Coran would be able to help him with it.

It’d been a while since he’d been off Cuba.

... Not counting the whole Arus debacle.

The day he left for the airport was uneventful. He got up and started the day as normal, up until lunch. He didn’t want to burden Mamá and Lisa with feeding him if he was going to leave immediately after. He grabbed his packed backpack, his wallet, his passport, and a pack of cigarettes. Lance wasn’t too worried about running out of packs since he actually enjoyed the Altean cigarettes. They were different than Earth ones, and were apparently not detrimental to the lungs. They were made from some Altean plant that naturally dissipated into oxygen after entering the trachea. Nothing could beat the sharp, bitter taste of Earth fags, though.

After hugging his family and saying goodbye to the horses and Kaltenecker, he got into his car and drove off. 

Well, he told himself, this is it. Whatever Allura had awaiting him on Altea, he'd find.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to clarify that I do not know how to speak or write Spanish and I don't know that much about Cuban culture, so if I get something wrong, it's not on purpose!
> 
> I also don't know that much astronomy, but I did try to get the constellations in the right place considering the time of the year and the location of Cuba on Earth. If I got the constellations wrong, once again, not intentional!
> 
> Also, while I'm not really looking for criticism itself, if I do something inconsistent with a head canon or precedent that I myself set, I don't mind you guys pointing it out! Just drop a polite comment about it and I'll try to fix it! 
> 
> One more thing- if any of you guys are confused (because I know the friends of mine that read this chapter were), "fags" mean cigarettes. I didn't want to keep writing the word "cigarette" over and over again since it would get too repetitive, and a cigar is not the same thing as a cigarette. Don't worry, it's not being used in the context we unfortunately so often hear for the word "fags"!
> 
> Leave comment of what you think of the chapter! I do appreciate them ever so and they help motivate me knowing that people actually like it!
> 
> Twitter: @cafri_jonique


	7. Red and Black and Yellow and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith breaks his back.
> 
> No, seriously, he breaks his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh I'm sorry this took so long to come out! From April to early June, I'd been extremely swamped with school work and zine applications! And then for the rest of June, I've had major writers block! Since it's summer and I have much more time to write, hopefully I'll be able to get at least one more chapter of this before school starts again (But no promises, stuff may come up!).
> 
> I'm also sorry that this isn't as long as some of the previous chapters! I would have written more, but I also felt that ending it off where I did would be better for the flow of the story. The next chapter hopefully will have at least 2k or 3k more words.
> 
> I hope you enjoy and I thank everyone who's still stuck around!

Funny enough, the first thing Keith thought of when his back hit the tree was constellations. Not because he could see them, although in his probably delirious state he swore he could, but because Lance had told him that be liked constellations.

He’d have to do research on the constellations of Earth, maybe branch out to the constellations on Altea, when he wasn’t dealing with a concussion. It’d probably impress Lance.

That’s what Keith got for trying to engage with aquatic bear-like creatures with giant tails alone. Well, not alone, technically, since Zethrid was there. But Zethrid, for some stupid reason, didn’t know how to swim, so Keith had to fight them by himself.

Then again, he could have waited to contact Acxa and Ezor, but… too late.

Fortunately, he was launched onto land instead of into the depths of the lake where there were most definitely more of them. If he had been submerged under the lake, he probably would’ve had less of a chance of not dying. Still, it caught him off guard, when several of them swung their tails at him. He was able to dodge most of them, but with so many attacking him from different directions, he was bound to get hit. And lo and behold, he got hit. He didn’t have time to brace for it and took the full brunt of the swing. 

And promptly blacked out for a second

When he came to again, he was thinking about constellations. It was a good distraction from his throbbing head and bruised back.

Which ones had Lance shown him before? The hare, right? And the… dove? 

Zethrid’s angry screaming at the… whatever the creatures were jolted him back to reality.

“Zethrid,” Keith growled, gritting his teeth through a wave of dizziness, “Shut up.”

“Come on, you pansies!” she continued, completely ignoring him, “Come on and fight me on land!”

“Why don’t you know how to swim?!” he snapped.

“I never needed to know.”

“Well, shit, neither did I, and yet I still learned!”

“Whatever!”

Keith deactivated his bayard and knife and hooked them onto his belt. His head spun as he tried getting up on all fours to crawl over to the pack that he left on land before jumping at the creatures.

“Ow, fuck!” he hissed, immediately regretting his decision to move. His arms and legs gave out and he fell back down with a loud _thud_. 

Crap. Crap crap crap crap. Had he broken a bone? Fuck, what was he supposed to do? 

He took a deep breath and shakily placed a hand onto the spot where his back had hit the tree. 

Even more instant regret. “GAH, FUCK!” Keith shouted again.

Okay. Okay, he could still feel pain below the point of impact, which meant that even if he had broken his back, he wasn’t paralyzed. Whatever and wherever the fracture was, it wasn’t too bad. Even if it hurt like hell.

Zethrid still seemed to not be paying attention to him. Kosmo was preoccupied continuing Keith’s fight with the creatures and didn’t seem to notice him either. He tentatively lifted a hand to turn on the communications to Acxa.

“Acxa, get your ass over here,” he panted, “I think… I think I… I think…” Keith couldn’t even get a sentence out. His breathing was getting heavier.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay? Do you need backup?” Acxa’s worried voice crackled through the comms. 

The pain in Keith’s back wasn’t getting worse, but it wasn’t getting any better either. It was making it hard to focus.

“I hit a tree and… and Zethrid doesn’t know how to swim… please just… just get over here. Get over… over here as quickly as… uh… as possible.” 

Once he heard a noise of affirmation from Acxa’s side, Keith relaxed his body and laid on the ground. The only sounds he could make out were his breathing, Zethrid’s voice, and Kosmo’s barking. Although even those sounds were getting faint.

Come on, he told himself, Stay grounded, focus on something other than the pain.

Constellations, right. 

There were some pretty cool star patterns above Daibazaal, maybe Lance would be interested in them. Maybe Keith could coax him off of Earth and get him to visit.

Hell, everyone could come too. Shiro and Hunk had both already been to Daibazaal, both on an Atlas mission and Shiro to see Keith. Pidge and, obviously, Lance hadn’t. Maybe they’d like to.

And Keith could impress Lance with his knowledge of the Daibazaal constellations.

… after he learned about them. He should probably buy a book. For all three planets.

And he should buy that book after he recovered from whatever the hell happened to his back.

Oh, right, his back.

“OW FUCK!” Something was pressing down directly on the injury. Red flashed across his eyes and black spots danced all over his vision.

Keith weakly lifted a hand to swat at whatever it was. His hand was grabbed and pinned down on the ground before he could even connect. 

“Keith, stay down!” Ezor’s voice rang through his ears. “Don’t move, I’m just trying to see where it hurts the most!”

“Take a wild guess!”

“Well, that’s technically what I did…”

“I’m going to… going to strangle you the… the minute I stop dying down here.”

“Yeah, yeah. Hang on a second, Acxa’s grabbing the sedatives.”

Keith resisted struggling more as Ezor felt around other places on his back. Thankfully, she was careful to avoid directly touching the injury.

“Keith, I’m going to administer the sedative now. Please stay still.” He heard Acxa kneel on the ground next to him.

He tensed up, but did as she said. His fists curled and gripped at the grass, his nails getting so deep that he was unearthing dirt. 

Finally, finally, the pain was slowly ebbing away. His eyelids started to feel heavy and the pain in his back was dulling to a throbbing ache rather than a sharp stabbing sensation.

“Acxa,” he mumbled quickly before he could go back under, “You’re in charge… in charge for now.”

She nodded. “Right. I got things covered, you rest up right now.”

With a sigh, he closed his eyes, relaxed into the growing drowsiness, and let the constellations fill his mind.

——————

“It may not look good right now, but fortunately, you can still feel sensations below the point of impact, which indicates that all neurological function in that area will be able to return in due time. Electrical impulses are still being registered in your nerves and muscles down there. However, the broken vertebrae in your spine have pinched down on your spinal cord. It caused a herniated disc to form, which is putting more and more pressure on your spine as a whole. It looks as though you’ll probably need to undergo a laminectomy to relieve that pressure alongside a vertebroplasty to seal the fractures.”

Keith was staring down at the x-rays sitting on his lap, a blank expression resting on his face. “Surgery, huh.”

“Yes. We’ll go over the details more a bit later, but it won’t be for at least another phoeb since we’ll need to take some other tests to make sure you’re physically fit to undergo surgery. And as of right now, there is no immediate emergency that we need to tend to.”

Slowly nodding, Keith looked up at the doctor. “How long will it take to recover?”

“Well, you’ll definitely be able to go home within a few quintants afterwards, once we’re sure you’re okay, but depending on how well you stick to the recovery plan, it’ll take a few phoebs before you can fully recover. Healing times may also vary for you since it works differently for Galra and humans. You mentioned that you’ve only broken a bone thrice, one when you were a child and two when you were an adolescent. They were both before you knew about your Galra heritage, and you don’t have any medical records of how the process went, so we don’t know exactly how the mixture of your DNA will affect your ability to heal. But if we base the estimate off of common human biology, which would be the worse case scenario, then it would probably take four phoebs to recover from the injury and surgery alike. However, you would still have to take it easy for at least a deca-phoeb following the surgery, just to make sure nothing reopens.”

His eyes widened. “A _deca-phoeb?!_ ”

“Yes, Mr. Kogane.”

Keith put a hand on his head. “Holy shit, what am I going to do until then? My entire job revolves around not ‘taking it easy!’

“I understand that, however, if you exacerbate the wound, especially when it’s healing, it could result in a worse injury. Since it’s in such a sensitive place in the body, worsening the injury could result in paralysis.”

Paralysis did sound bad.

He took in a deep breath.

“Okay. If I do rest up for a year, will I be able to continue on as normal?”

The doctor smiled and nodded. “Yes, once your spine is fully healed, you should be able to resume your current duties.” 

“Okay. Okay. What about right now?”

“Right now, you rest in bed. I’ll have one of our specialists come in and discuss surgery further with you at a later date.” the doctor said, picking up Keith’s x-rays, “We’ll keep checking up week by week leading up to the surgery. We’ll also have you fitted for a back brace for after the surgery. While you don’t necessarily have to, starting physical therapy 24 vargas after you wake up will be the most effective way to gain back muscle strength as quickly as possible and it’ll help you be able to walk without a walker sooner.”

“I’ll have to use a walker?”

“Well, once you’re discharged from the hospital, you may be able to switch to a cane, but yes, you’ll need to use a walker to get around for a bit.”

He must have made a face, because the doctor’s expression changed to one of sympathy. “I know it’ll probably be annoying for a while, but trust me, you will want a walker to prevent yourself from falling down. Your muscles will be very weak after surgery, especially since you will not have had a lot of exercise for a while.”

Keith closed his eyes. He was going to be okay, that’s all that mattered. He wasn’t paralyzed, he just needed to get a quick surgery and rest for a year. Not a problem.He’d be in top shape again in no time.

“Okay. A walker. No big deal.”

“Tomorrow, we’ll take a couple of blood tests, but for now, you should just relax. I notified your closest living relative, which is your mother, and she should be on her way to come see you.”

“Sure, yeah.”

“Hey.” The doctor waved his hand to get Keith’s attention. “It’ll be over before you know it. And think of the bright side.”

“There’s a bright side to breaking my back?”

“Not a very good bright side, but yes! You’ll have an interesting story to tell people after you recover.”

——————

His mother visited him a lot in the month leading up to his surgery, sometimes bringing Kolivan. She never fussed over him, she wasn’t that type of person, but Keith could tell she was worried. When Krolia thought he wasn’t looking, she’d rub her now-swollen belly, as if already trying to protect her unborn child. 

Keith didn’t like it. He had read up a bit on pregnancies, just so that he could be more courteous of Krolia, and he remembered reading somewhere that stress wasn’t good for the baby. And Krolia was definitely stressed. He did his best to try and act cheery, for her sake. It didn’t matter. It either it didn’t work or she saw right through him. 

Krolia’s stress seemed to affect Kosmo. The wolf refused to leave Keith’s side, not even to pee, which led to some unfortunate accidents. He was also more growly to new people he didn’t recognize. Thankfully, though, Kosmo didn’t try to sit on the bed.

His unit also visited him. Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid all offered him get-well cards. Zethrid also pledged to learn how to swim so a situation like that wouldn’t occur again. Pidge video chatted with him a few times to check up on him and talk about work. He was grateful for the distraction, and would silently thank her every time.

Two weeks before he was scheduled for the surgeries, he received some unexpected visitors.

“Keith, oh jeez, you actually did break your back!”

He had approximately two seconds to process Hunk’s voice before he was wrapped into a giant bear hug. Before he could even process _that_ , Hunk released him again.

“Sorry, sorry! I probably shouldn’t do that! I don’t want to hurt your back even more!”

Keith stretched his shoulder. “It’s fine, Hunk. I’m fine.”

“Clearly you aren’t.”

A different voice at the door brought Keith’s attention away from Hunk.

“Shiro. Wow.”

The other man smiled. “But at least you’re not paralyzed.”

Both Hunk and Shiro sat down in the visitor’s chairs laid out next to his bed.

Hunk opened the bag he was carrying and took out a box. He set it down on Keith’s lap.

“What’s this?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I made some kopai for you. They’re like, uh, sweet caramel dumplings.”

Keith opened the box and inside, there were, as Hunk said, a bunch of dumplings in some kind of soupy liquid. His mouth watered.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to make this for me.”

“I know, but I wanted to. Sometimes a good meal can help you relax, right?”

“Yeah.” He’d eat it after Shiro and Hunk left. 

“We have a few more things, too.’ Hunk thrust his hand back into the bag. He pulled out another box.

When Keith opened that one, he was a bit confused. “Is this full of… cards?”

Shiro nodded. “Everyone on the Atlas wrote a card for you. Most of the people have met you at least once. And even those who didn’t still know who you are.”

Keith stared at them. The box was completely filled. He blinked a few times, as if the box wasn’t real and it would disappear any moment. 

“So…” he said, “What brings you guys here?”

Shiro chuckled. “You do. We wanted to visit you and make sure that you were okay. You messaged us that you were having back surgery soon, but you didn’t really specify a reason.”

“I just didn’t want to worry you. I also wanted to give a heads up as to why I may not be responding for a while, since I probably won’t have access to electronics for a few days after they put me under. But you still didn’t have to come all the way to Daibazaal just to see me. Or, wait, was the Atlas stopping here anyways?”

Shiro and Hunk both shook their heads. “We just wanted to see you,” Hunk said, “You mean a lot to both of us. You know? We may all be separated now, but we’re still a team, right? And the team cares about it’s teammates.”

“We’re taking time off the Atlas for a good reason,” Shiro added, “We wanted to see you before the surgery.”

Keith looked down. “I don’t, ah… I don’t really know what to say. Thank you.”

His words of gratitude received warm smiles.

“Other than, y’know, your back, how have things been?” Hunk asked.

Keith shrugged. “It’s been. Nothing really special has happened. Uh, Mom’s just entered her third trimester?”

“Oh that’s right!” Hunk’s smile grew bigger, “You’re going to be a big brother! Are you excited?”

“Yeah. It’ll be different, but I’m not complaining. And I should be home by the time the baby is due”

“Do you know if it’s a boy or girl yet?” Shiro leaned forward.

“No. Mom and Kolivan want it to be a surprise. I don’t really get why, but whatever makes them happy.”

“My older sister once told me that our parents were the same when I was born.” Hunk said, scratching his head. “It explained why we had a bunch of unused baby clothes for girls until my niece was born.”

“Pfft, what?” Keith snorted, “I don’t think we’ll have that problem. All the Galra babywear that I’ve seen on Daibazaal is pretty unisex.”

“Well, at least-” Shiro was cut off by a loud buzzing. Hunk raised a hand up apologetically. “Sorry, that’s my phone.” He took it out of his pocket and looked at the name on the screen.

He stood up. “Sorry guys, I have to take this.”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, yeah take your time.”

With a smile, Hunk stepped out of the room, leaving Keith and Shiro alone.

Shiro scooted his chair closer. “Is there anything I can get you?”

Keith shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. How have you been? How’s Curtis?”

“Curtis is doing well. We’ve planned out where we’re going to have the wedding.”

“Oh yeah? Where?”

“Red Deer, where he’s from. It’s in Canada. I went with him last year to meet his family, and it was a nice city.”

“Have any ideas for your honeymoon?”

“Nope. We’re already stressing over planning the wedding, we don’t need to stress over something that’ll come afterwards right now.” Shiro sighed. “Who knew weddings were so complicated, huh?”

“Not like I would know,” Keith said, shrugging, “But I’m sure you two will manage. And if you need any help, you know to call me.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I know you’d do the same for me.”

“Of course.”

They both fell quiet, but it wasn’t really an awkward sort of silence. Shiro looked around and examined the features of the room. .The muffled sound of Hunk talking on the phone made its way through the door, although he couldn’t make out what was being said.

Shiro was the one to speak first after a while. “Do you know how long it’ll take for you to recover?

Keith rubbed his head. “Um, not exactly. I guess Galra and human genes combined are sort of a mystery in terms of healing.”

“I’m assuming you and your doctors have made a plan for after the surgery is over.”

“Yeah. Although I’m not too happy about some parts of it.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“Well, when I go home, they’re assigning me a caretaker since I’ll need to have someone watch me and make sure I don’t trip and die. I guess it’s for the best, but like… I’ll have to have someone constantly watching me to make sure I don’t fall and die. Even in the bathroom and shower.”

“Oo, yeah, that sucks.”

“I guess technically they don’t have to be in the same room as me when I’m actually using the toilet, but still. I’ll have to keep the door open and that’ll be awkward as hell.”

“I mean, it’s uncomfortable either way, but don’t you have to have someone help you go to the bathroom now?”

“Yeah, and it’s really fucking awful and I’d rather not talk about what it’s like to do that here.”

“Well, at least you won’t have to have someone looking at you .”

“Yeah. Even I admit that it’s better to have someone there to catch me if I fall than to fall and break my back again. It’ll be tough, though.”

Shiro nodded sympathetically. “I can imagine. You know, I could stay here with you until the surgery is over.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I mean, it’s not like I’m going anywhere. Besides, you’re busy with the Atlas.”

“No no, really, it wouldn’t be a problem. The higher ups would definitely understand me taking time off to help support you until you’re able to go home.”

“Are you sure? Really, I don’t want to trouble you with this, especially since I’m not dying.”

“Keith.”

“What?”

“I’m serious.” Shiro patted Keith’s shoulder. “I want to help. And if the only way I can help is by staying by your side for the time being, well, then that’s just what I’ll have to do.”

Smiling, Keith nodded. “Okay. Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Sorry about that, my mom was freaking out about something and I needed to calm her down until my dad got home.” Hunk gave a shy little wave as he reentered the room.

“It’s cool, we were just talking about how my recovery’s gonna look like.”

“Really? Well how _is_ your recovery gonna look like?”

As Shiro explained everything to Hunk, Keith opened the box of cards again and sorted through them. He was surprised at how many there were, even though Shiro had mentioned that everyone in the Atlas had written a card for him. It was… nice, to say the least.

He came across a card that had the words, “You’re a star!” on it. Keith blinked for a few seconds. Then it was like a lightbulb went off in his head.

“Hey Shiro,” he interrupted, looking up from the card.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have a book on constellations?”

——————

He should probably get some sleep, but… was he going to?

It was late at night (or early in the morning), almost 3, and Keith was still diving into the pile of books about constellations that Shiro had left behind for him. Shiro had even gone out and bought him that book about constellations on Daibazaal.

Kosmo was deep asleep, if his slow breathing had any indication, and it was lights out in the hospital, but of course, Keith was up reading. 

Which, even to him, was a little strange, since it wasn’t as if he had plans the next day. The doctor had said that rest was important.

It was only after he had accidentally reread the same page three times in a row that he decided it was probably time to sleep.

He kept his eyes open for a little longer though, letting the information he barrelled through settle in his head.

Who knew there were so many constellations on Earth? And who knew there was such a deep meaning behind all of them?

Well. Obviously a lot of people knew. Not Keith, though. At least, not until now.

He understood why Lance was so fascinated with them. Keith couldn’t wait to impress him with his newfou

He sighed and reached a hand over the side of the bed to pet Kosmo’s head. The wolf let out a sleepy grunt.

“Goodnight, boy.”

——————

Three days before the surgery, Keith got a call. Well, technically not a call, but a voicemail left while he was sleeping.

_“Hey, Keith, it’s Lance. Um, I would have called sooner, but I literally just heard about what happened from Veronica, who found out from Acxa. I wish someone would’ve told me earlier, since apparently Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro all knew, but, uh, oh well I guess? I guess it’s also technically my fault for not texting or calling this past month, I’ve just been distracted with… uh… something. Anyways, I just wanted to call to check on you. I’m sorry you have to deal with your back and needing surgery. I know you’ll be okay though. Little back injury won’t keep down the great Kogane, right? If you, uh, if you have time before your surgery, give me a call. Or, um, if you don’t want to, that’s cool too, you’re probably really busy. Well, not busy busy, but… you know what I mean. If we don’t talk before you have your surgery, then I, uh, I hope it goes well. Let me know, okay? Talk to you soon.”_

Keith replayed the message a couple of times before it actually sunk in. Shiro looked up from the book he was reading. “Are you going to call him back?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Keith flinched, having forgotten Shiro was in the room.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll call him back in a second, just, uh, just gotta think of what to say. Do you know what time it is on Earth?”

“It should be 5 in the afternoon. Do you want me to leave the room while you talk to him?”

“Actually, yeah, if you could.”

“Alright.” Closing his book, Shiro stood up, patted his lap, and walked out the door with a little wave.

Keith looked back down at his phone and stared for a while. What was he going to say to Lance? He felt a little guilty for not messaging Lance about his injury. True, Lance would have (and did) eventually found out about it. But he had completely forgot about telling Lance, even though he’d been reading a shit-ton of constellation books for him.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he took a deep breath and dialed Lance’s number.

After three or four rings, the call connected.

“Hello?”

“Oh, uh, hey Lance. It’s Keith. I got your message.”

“Oh! Hey! How are you?”

“I’m fine. Well, as fine as I can be.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m doing well. It’s nothing serious.”

“… Dude.”

“… What?”

“You’re really gonna tell me that breaking your back is nothing serious?”

“Okay, yeah, it is serious, but like… not in the serious way?”

“What?”

Keith was fumbling with his words. “Like, yeah, breaking your back is a pretty bad injury, but it, uh, it could be worse. I’m not paralyzed. Well, I could be, but that’s only if the surgery goes bad or I don’t take the proper steps to recover afterwards. Um! Not saying that’ll happen I’m just… uh… ”

“Keith… are you sure you’re okay?”

Rubbing his eyes, Keith shook his head, even though Lance obviously couldn’t see it. “No, I’m not, I’m really not. I’ve never had surgery this major before. The worse I’ve ‘injury’ I ever had was back when the Komar Mech exploded next to us back when we were defending Earth. And even that wasn’t that bad! All I had to do then was wake up and take some medicine. This is different though. I’m gonna be out of commission for an entire year! And I honestly don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do for that year because I can’t go on missions, I can’t train, and I’ll have to have someone watch me do literally everything until they’re sure I can walk without needing anymore assistance than a cane. I keep telling myself that it’s only a year, I’ll get better, yada yada, but honestly, _what if I don’t. What if the surgery does go wrong and now I’m stuck with a cane for the rest of my life._ Or even worse- paralyzed!”

He was breathing heavily at this point and he got that familiar feeling in the edge of his eyes that indicated he was going to cry soon. He absolutely did not want to cry in front of Lance. 

Wow. He really didn’t realize how worried about the surgery he actually was. 

“Keith, calm down, it’ll be okay. Really. My mom had back surgery a couple of years back, and she’s fine. You saw her just a couple of months ago, right? Did she look like she was having trouble walking?”

“No…”

“Exactly. You’ll be fine. There’s a very low chance that the surgery will go wrong.”

“I guess…”

“And yeah, a year definitely seems pretty daunting, don’t get me wrong. But trust me when I say it’ll fly by. And then, once you’re 100% recovered, you’ll train like hell and go back to kicking ass.”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I know objectively that I’ll be fine, I’m just rambling on.”

“Yeah, and it’s perfectly reasonable why. You’re just nervous, and you have every right to be.”

“Thanks, Lance.”

“No no, don’t thank me. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I really do appreciate that.”

“Yeah, and- what?” Lance’s voice got quieter, like his head was away from the phone, and Keith could hear a second, more muffled voice talking. 

“Okay, yeah, give me a second. Hey, Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Coran wants to talk with you. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s- wait, Coran?”

There was the sound of shuffling.

“Hello my boy! Lance told me about your back problem!”

“What the hell… are you on Earth?”

“Oh heavens no. No, I am absolutely flocked with work to do on Altea.”

“... What? Lance is on Altea right now?”

“That is correct, yes!”

Wait, what? Lance was off his farm?

Since when?

“Oh, okay… um. And Lance is with you right now?”

“You just talked to him, did you not? We’re having tea and snacks right now!”

“… What?”

“In any case, how are you feeling? When is your surgery?”

“Oh, uh, it’s in a couple of days. Er, quintants.”

“Ah, I see. More importantly, are you okay?”

“I mean… I guess. After the surgery, I just need to exercise a lot for a year and I’ll be fine.”

“That’s good! If you need anything afterwards, do not hesitate to let me know! We’re all worried for you, and I’ll do my best to help in anyway I can.”

“Thanks, Coran.”

“Maybe I’ll consider taking a trip to Daibazaal if it’s not too much trouble. I can properly check up on you.”

“You really don’t need to do that, especially since you’re really busy right now.”

“Nonsense! Just like I was able to find time for Lance, I will certainly be able to find time for you! I’ll just have to some work done ahead of time.”

“Alright. But if you can’t in the end, that’s okay too.”

“If I can’t, I will definitely contact you to see how you’re doing.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m going to hand you back to Lance now, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Good luck, Keith.”

Keith took a deep breath in and shifted a bit on his bed.

“Hi again.” Lance’s voice rang through the phone again.

“So, you’re on Altea right now?”

“Yup.”

“I’m honestly surprised.”

A chuckle. “You wouldn’t be the first.”

“Any particular reason?”

“Well, uh… yes… and no?”

“Yes and no?”

“It’s complicated. I don’t wanna bore you.”

“I’m literally doing nothing but lying on the bed.”

“… Fair point, but I’m still not gonna worry you.”

“Lance-”

“Anyways, have you been doing anything interesting?”

Why was he avoiding the question? What the hell was he actually doing on Altea?

“I mean. No.”

“Really? No goofy hospital stories?”

“I feel like the type of goofy hospital stories you’re looking for would require me to, y’know, move around the hospital.”

“Hm, I see. Well, what do you actually do?”

“Not a whole lot. I get meals three times a day. If I want a snack, I just ask. Usually get some sort of test done two or three times a week. Mom and Kolivan visit a lot, so I talk to them. Shiro’s been staying at my house, and he comes by every day too.”

“Wait, Shiro’s there?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t he supposed to be on the Atlas? Veronica told me it’s nearing the end of the six month travel period.”

“Technically, he is, but he requested leave for a bit, just to watch over me until after the surgery.”

“Ah, makes sense. That’s nice of him.”

“Yeah. Um, I guess we play cards a lot to pass the time, so that’s another thing I do. I draw a lot, too. They gave me my sketchbook.”

“You draw?”

“Yeah. It helps calm me down when I can’t train or sharpen my knife. Picked it up back when I first joined the Blade.”

“No kidding. Do you still have your books from back then?”

“No. They were destroyed along with the Castleship.”

“Oh. Bummer.”

“It’s whatever. I have plenty of sketchbooks now anyways.”

“You gotta let me flip through them, man. I’m hella curious now to see how you draw.”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Well I’ll be the judge of that!”

Keith smiled. “Whatever you say.”

“But for real, it seriously can’t be that boring.”

“I have been reading a lot, too.”

“Really? What kinds of books?”

“Just books. No specific type.”

“Recommend any?”

“Nah. I mean, they’re all good, but I don’t think you’d be interested in any.”

“You never know.”

“I guess that’s true.”

There was a soft knock on the door to his room before it opened slightly. He looked up to see Shiro along with a nurse peeking in.

“Oh, shoot. I gotta go, nurse needs to do a routine morning check of my vitals.”

“Oh, yeah, you better get to that. Call me after the surgery and let me know how it went? When and or if you can?”

“Of course, yeah.”

“Alright.”

“Yeah. Good luck.”

“Thanks. Talk to you later.”

He ended the call and lifted an arm to beckon the nurse in.

——————

“We’ll be in the waiting room the whole time, okay?” Krolia was rubbing Keith’s arm in an attempt to comfort him.

Kolivan and Shiro had finally managed to drag Kosmo out of the room and walked back in to send their good wishes to Keith. Luckily, the wolf didn’t try to teleport back in. Good thing he had talked to him earlier.

“Everything will be fine. Just do what you’ve been doing the past month, okay?” Shiro said, offering Keith a reassuring smile, “Follow the directions the doctors give you.”

Even though he didn’t say anything, Kolivan offered a small nod. He walked up and squeezed Keith’s hand, which was a pretty touching gesture coming from him.”

Keith’s stomach was performing gymnastics. Krolia leaned in and kissed the top of his head before heaving herself up.

“I love you, Keith.” Her voice was wavering.

“Love you, Mom. And Shiro.”

Shiro patted Keith’s shoulder. "We'll see you afterwards."

The three were ushered out by a nurse and Keith strained to get one last glimpse of them.

“Okay, Mr. Kogane.” His primary doctor walked right beside him, looking down at a clipboard. He motioned for the anesthesiologist to come forward.

“We’ll start preparing you for the surgery. Are you ready?”

Keith closed his eyes and breathed in sharply. He nodded.

“Yes. I’m ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly had to do a lot of research to make sure that most of the stuff involving Keith's injury and the treatment leading up to surgery (as well as the type of surgery itself) was as accurate as possible, but even then, there were a few pieces of information that I couldn't quite find. If any of you readers have had a back surgery and I got something wrong, I apologize! I'm definitely no expert! Just assume that since VLD takes place in the distant future from now, that treatments for stuff may be a bit different.
> 
> In any case, thank you for reading!
> 
> Twitter: @cafri_jonique
> 
> Instagram: @cafrifri


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